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In  The  Time  of  Paul 


In  the  Time  of  Paul 


How  Christianity  Entered 
Into  and  Modified  Life  in 
the  Roman  Empire    :     :     : 


Rev.  Edward  G.  Selden,  D.D 

Pastor  of  the  Madison  Avenue  Reformed  Church, 
Albany,  N.  Y. 


vru  E  r  Lvx 


Chicago  New  York         Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright    1900 
By  Fleming   H.    Rcvell  Company 


INTRODUCTION. 

T^HIS  little  book  attempts  to  set  forth  some 
^  of  the  more  significant  facts  pertaining 
to  the  Gentile  world  into  which  the  Apostle 
Paul  carried  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  not 
possible  to  make  an  exact  division  of  the  com- 
posite life  of  his  times  and  to  trace  out  in  all 
their  detail  the  political,  social,  moral,  relig- 
ious, and  intellectual  phases  of  the  old  civili- 
zation which  it  was  the  task  of  Christianity  to 
recast.  The  various  departments  of  influence 
overlap  and  intermingle;  yet  in  order  to  set 
forth  the  complex  conditions  with  which  the 
new  religion  had  to  deal,  and  out  of  which  it 
achieved  unparalleled  results,  it  seems  best  to 
present  a  series  of  pictures,  outlining  in  swift 
succession  the  special  aspects  of  the  world 
into  which  Christianity  was  forcing  its  tri- 
umphant way. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Chap.  Page 

I.  Paul  and  His  Times 13 

II.  The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity        .  26 

III.  The  Political  Structure  of  the  Roman 

World 43 

IV.  The  Social  Life  of  the  First  Century     .  61 

V.  The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age      .  81 

VI.  The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period       .  100 

VII.  The  Intellectual   Tendencies    of    the 

Time 123 

VIII.  The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Victory      .  143 


chapter  i. 
St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

T^HE  Apostle  Paul  is  the  representative  man 
^  of  the  first  century.  In  him  are  embodied 
the  moral  qualities  and  the  missionary  motives 
by  which  Christianity  conquered  the  world. 
It  would  be  unjust  to  ignore  the  de- 
votion and  service  of  his  fellow  laborers. 
John  was  of  even  finer  mold.  Peter  was 
equally  earnest,  Barnabas  as  conscien- 
tious; but  none  embodied  so  much  of  power 
and  grace,  so  much  of  promise  and  proph- 
ecy. In  no  other  was  manifested  such 
persistent  zeal  and  such  adroit  application  of 
the  forces  at  command.  ' '  He  was  one  of  the 
creative  geniuses  whose  policy  marks  out  a 
line  on  which  history  has  to  move  for  genera- 
tions afterward."  Not  only  is  this  our  con- 
clusion upon  reviewing  the  events  of  the  first 
century,  but  it  must  even  have  been  patent  to 
his  own  clear  judgment.  By  preaching,  and 
by  the  organization  of  gathering  forces,  he  felt 
himself  under  constraint  at  any  cost  to  insure 
the  establishment  of  Christianity  in  the  Empire. 

13 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

In  answering  the  summons  to  leadership  in 
the  new  movement  he  rose  to  the  sublimest 
heights  of  thought  and  purpose.  His  very 
consciousness  was  transfused  by  the  glory  of 
the  undertaking.  Partly  by  virtue  of  his  own 
energy  and  partly  by  force  of  circumstance  he 
was  pushed  to  the  front.  He  was  content  to 
build  on  no  man's  foundation,  to  preach  no 
gospel  save  that  which  had  been  revealed  to 
him,  to  determine  his  action  by  no  man's  ad- 
vice, to  gauge  his  fervor  by  no  other  man's 
devotion.  He  was  absorbed  in  his  apostolic 
mission.  Hence  came  services  second  in 
moral  quality  and  effectiveness  to  those  of  no 
other  man  since  time  began.  Moses  was  a 
leader  and  lawgiver  whose  labors  for  his  own 
nation  cannot  be  overrated;  David  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  kingdom,  and  gathered  the 
soul  of  all  lands  and  ages  into  the  music  of  his 
psalms;  Cyrus  appeared  as  the  providential 
deliverer  of  a  people  who  could  not  fulfil  their 
destiny  in  captivity  and  exile;  Alexander  has 
been  ranked  by  a  modern  historian  next  to 
the  Man  of  Galilee  as  a  promoter  of  civiliza- 
tion; to  the  generalship  and  statesmanship  of 
Caesar  is  to  be  attributed  the  territorial  ex- 
pansion of  the  Roman  Empire;  yet  the  work 
of  none  of  these  was  so  absolutely  and  incon- 
trovertibly   vital  to  the   higher  interests   of 

14 


St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

mankind  as  was  that  of  the  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles.  He  wrought  largely  in  the  G-reat 
Western  Empire,  through  which  all  that  was 
best  in  the  earlier  civilizations  was  transmitted 
to  modern  nations.  His  labors  entered  into 
the  persistent  and  progressive  life  of  the  ages. 
One  secret  of  Paul's  remarkable  success  is 
found  in  the  nearly  perfect  combination  of 
hereditary  qualities  and  prerogatives  which 
he  possessed.  In  him  mingled  two  streams  of 
tendency  which  flowed  out  of  the  Jewish  and 
Roman  worlds.  On  one  side  were  ancestry 
and  training,  on  the  other  the  proud  conscious- 
ness and  the  political  privileges  of  a  citizen  of 
the  Empire.  His  family  had  very  likely  resided 
in  Tarsus  long  enough  to  have  become  iden- 
tified with  its  social  life  and  endowed  with  all 
the  rights  and  sentiments  of  citizenship.  The 
Seleucid  kings  in  founding  the  place  had  shown 
a  preference  for  Jewish  colonists,  so  that  poli- 
tical favors  may  have  been  granted,  a  genera- 
tion or  two  before  Paul's  time,  for  distin- 
guished services.  While,  therefore,  the  train- 
ing of  youth  and  the  later  education  of  young 
manhoood  in  the  school  of  Gamaliel  had  given 
him  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  literature, 
laws  and  traditions  of  his  people,  so  that 
Jewish  feelings  were  in  him  peculiarly  intense, 
yet   having   been   born    so  far   from   Jerusa- 

15 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

lem,  in  a  Roman  colony  and  in  the  midst 
of  Roman  influences,  he  must  have  had  a 
broader  acquaintance  with  the  world  and  a  more 
catholic  sympathy  with  man  than  was  possible 
to  the  other  apostles.  He  appreciated  the  glory 
of  Jewish  tradition  and  its  narrowness,  the 
corruption  of  Rome  and  its  actual  power.  In 
a  practical  way  also  he  used  the  twofold 
advantage  of  Hebrew  birth  and  Roman  citizen- 
ship. In  every  city  he  went,  first  of  all,  where 
a  Gentile  would  not  have  been  admitted, 
namely,  into  a  synagogue.  He  was  at  home 
in  the  simple  customs  of  worship  and  speech 
of  his  people.  He  could  begin  every  appeal 
to  them  on  the  ground  of  common  faith 
and  hope  in  the  God  of  Israel,  and  in  his 
teaching  could  move  along  the  lines  of 
their  Messianic  promises  to  the  actual  life  and 
teachings  of  Jesus.  To  be  sure,  he  met  with 
bitter  opposition  and  cruel  treatment,  and  yet 
in  every  town  through  him  as  a  Heaven-sent 
ambassador,  Christ  came  to  some  of  His  own 
who  were  ready  to  receive  Him.  This  accounts 
for  speedy  success  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  Ma- 
cedonia, in  Corinth  and  in  Rome.  The  Jewish 
people  were  already  widely  scattered.  Jose- 
phus  mentions  that  by  one  edict  a  century 
before  Christ,  two  thousand  families  were 
transported  to  the  fortified  towns  of  Lydia  and 

16 


St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

Phrygia,  for  the  sake  of  hastening  submission 
and  good  order  among  a  rude  people.  The 
special  political  privileges  granted  by  the 
Seleucid  kings  to  secure  the  contentment  and 
fidelity  of  these  exiles  were  confirmed  by 
Roman  officials.  A  people  instructed  in  re- 
ligious truth  was  thus  established  in  the 
midst  of  heathen  communities  and  in  due  time 
a  specially  prepared  Apostle  was  sent  forth  to 
take  advantage  of  their  intelligence  and  in- 
fluence in  disseminating  among  them  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  faith. 

At  the  same  time,  in  many  an  emergency 
the  protection  assured  by  the  universal  rights 
of  Roman  citizenship  secured  to  Paul  life  and 
liberty  for  prolonged  service.  At  Thessalon- 
ica  he  was  kindly  received  by  the  Politarchs; 
at  Corinth  he  was  rescued  from  the  hands  of 
infuriated  Jews  by  the  justice  of  Gallio;  in 
Jerusalem  he  was  saved  from  the  excited  mob 
by  the  interference  of  Lysias,  the  captain  of 
the  guard;  at  Caesarea  he  was  sheltered  from 
the  plots  of  the  Great  Council  by  Festus,  the 
Roman  Governor ;  and  yet  again  he  saved  him- 
self from  the  malignity  of  the  Jews  by  his 
formal  appeal  to  the  right  of  trial  at  Rome. 

Paul  represents  the  aggressive  side  of 
Christianity.  Zeal  for  the  kingdom  marks 
his  whole  career,  from  his  divine  call  to  his  last 

17 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

impassioned  appeal.  There  were  no  passive 
hours  for  one  who  had  taken  up  the  burden  of 
the  world's  redemption.  The  scope  of  his 
labors  cannot,  indeed,  be  easily  understood 
now  that  Asia  Minor  and  Macedonia  are  so  re- 
mote from  the  track  of  modern  progress,  so 
far  apart  from  all  arenas  of  national  strife.  It 
is  difficult  to  realize  how  populous  was  this 
region  at  this  time.  The  great  highways  of 
commerce  and  travel  lay  along  its  coast, 
through  cities  prosperous  in  trade,  magnifi- 
cent in  architecture,  the  centers  of  Greek  cul- 
ture and  influence;  or  over  the  mountain 
passes  of  the  interior  through  fortified  towns 
in  which  order  was  maintained  by  Roman 
magistrates  and  centurions.  Through  all  of 
these  provinces  Paul  went  with  the  freedom  as- 
sured to  a  citizen  of  the  Empire,  and  with 
ever  deepening  comprehension  of  the  exigen- 
cies and  opportunities  which  confronted  him. 

The  story  of  Paul's  providential  call  has  in 
it  a  touch  of  romance. 

One  day  while  waiting  at  Tarsus  in  doubt 
as  to  his  future,  he  suddenly  found  himself 
face  to  face  with  Barnabas,  who,  years  before, 
with  an  instinctive  recognition  of  his  zeal  and 
capacity  for  service,  had  befriended  him  at 
Jerusalem.  It  was  on  the  crowded  streets  of 
this  Cilician  city  that  Paul  again  encountered 

18 


St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

the  man  who  had  been  praying  for  a  coadjutor  in 
his  apostolic  labors.  Barnabas'  word  of  invita- 
tion and  appeal  was  as  spark  to  tinder.  The 
voice  of  this  zealous  worker  was  to  Paul  like 
the  voice  of  God,  and  forthwith  the  two 
friends  traveled  together  to  Antioch  the  Syrian 
capital,  where  for  a  whole  year  they  labored  to- 
gether, and  had  the  joy  of  seeing  vast  numbers 
of  Gentiles  brought  into  the  new  covenant. 

Here  in  the  third  city  in  population,  wealth, 
and  commercial  importance  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire it  first  began  to  dawn  on  the  Roman  mind 
that  a  religion  was  making  its  way  which 
could  no  longer  be  identified  with  the  ancient 
Jewish  faith.  "The  disciples  were  called 
Christians  first  in  Antioch,"  but  the  inventors 
of  this  new  name  little  dreamed  that  a  name  so 
lightly  given,  at  first  perhaps  with  ribald 
wit,  was  to  penetrate,  overmaster  and  finally 
outlive  by  uncounted  centuries  the  mighty 
empire  whose  seat  of  government  was  upon 
the  seven  hills  of  Rome. 

It  is  significant  that  this  Gentile  city,  and 
not  Jerusalem,  was  the  starting  point  for  the 
first  great  world-wide  missionary  enterprise; 
that  here  began  the  work  which  was  to  ex- 
tend through  every  province  of  the  known 
world.  By  the  light  of  history  it  is  now  easy 
to  see  that  the  very  genius  of  Christianity  as 

19 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

a  world-wide  religion  was  in  the  impulse  which 
sent  Paul  and  Barnabas  forth  from,  and 
brought  them  back  to,  a  city  belonging  not  to 
the  Jewish  but  to  the  Roman  world.  It  was 
not  so  far  distant  from  Jerusalem — the  earlier 
base  of  religion,  where  James  presided  over  the 
first  Christian  church  and  where  some  of  the 
twelve  still  lingered — as  to  prevent  attendance 
at  the  Great  Council  which  was  held  for  solemn 
consideration  of  the  new  and  startling  enter- 
prise upon  which  these  enthusiastic  apostles 
had  entered.  The  new  missionary  centre  of 
Christianity  lost  nothing  from  being  within  a 
few  days'  journey  of  the  sacred  city,  while  it 
gained  much  from  its  relation  to  the  great 
world  which  the  Jew  called  Gentiledom.  It 
was  the  destiny  of  the  new  religion  to  conquer 
the  all-conquering  Empire,  in  order  that  the 
salvation  of  the  world  might  be  achieved 
through  the  co-operative  agency  a  people  not 
bigoted  and  shut  out  from  vital  touch  with 
the  nations,  but  cosmopolitan  and  in  active 
communication  with  the  world  on  every  side 
of  its  manifold  activities.  By  reason  of  its 
commerce,  and  of  its  avenues  of  communica- 
tion on  sea  and  land,  Antioch  was  "  the  Gate 
of  the  East,"  while  by  its  political  affinities  it 
belonged  to  the  Western  world.  No  city 
was  so  favorably  situated  with  reference  to 

20 


-*         St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

the  prosecution  of  a  missionary  enterprise 
which  was  not  to  stop  short  of  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  and  the  shores  of  Britain.  Here, 
where  for  several  centuries  had  dwelt  the  Greek 
kings  of  Syria,  and  where  at  this  time  resided 
Roman  governors  and  high  officials,  was  born 
the  undertaking  which  the  centuries  have  not 
yet  brought  to  completion. 

The  pamphlet  written  by  Paul's  companion, 
Luke,  under  the  title  of  "The  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles," and  the  occasional  letters  of  the  Apostle 
himself  which  have  survived  the  vicissitudes  of 
the  centuries,  give  sufficient  data  concerning 
his  missionary  journeys  throughout  the  Empire, 
and  his  enforced  residence  at  Rome.  It  seems 
probable  that  a  favorable  termination  of  the 
first  imprisonment  gave  Paul  five  years  or  more 
of  continued  labors  in  Asia  Minor  and  Mace- 
donia. This  was  the  universal  belief  of  the 
ancient  church,  and  is  supported  by  fragmen- 
tary utterances  of  early  writers.  His  disciple 
Clement,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Rome,  expressly 
asserts  that  Paul  preached  the  gospel  ' '  in  the 
East  and  the  West,"  and  that  he  instructed 
' '  the  whole  world  in  righteousness. "  Eusebius, 
Chrysostom,  and  Jerome  held  it  as  a  matter  of 
common  knowledge  that  Paul  went  into  Spain, 
and  this  in  all  probability  carried  him  through 
Southern  Gaul.     When  at  last  his  life-purpose 

21 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

had  been  fulfilled  he  found  a  not  unwelcome 
release  through  martyrdom.  He  had  written 
of  himself  as  "Paul  the  Aged,"  worn  out  by 
unnumbered  toils  and  unrecounted  sufferings, 
and  more  than  ' '  ready  to  be  offered. ' '  It  was 
a  pathetic  and  yet  not  inglorious  ending  of  his 
earthly  life.  He  had  tasted  the  bitterness  of 
loneliness,  for  he  wrote  to  Timothy:  "When  I 
was  first  heard  in  my  defense  no  man  stood 
by  me,  but  all  forsook  me.  Nevertheless,  the 
Lord  stood  by  me  and  strengthened  my  heart. " 
With  this  comfort,  ineffable  and  unfailing,  he 
still  was  able  by  the  very  exigencies  of  his  fate- 
ful trials  to  "proclaim  the  Glad  Tidings,"  in 
full  measure,  ' '  so  that  all  the  Gentiles  might 
hear  the  Word."  Thus  ''the  tribunal  of  Nero 
faded  from  his  sight  and  the  vista  was  closed 
by  the  vision  of  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ." 
The  lights  and  shadows  continued  to  the  end, 
and  he  marched  to  his  martyrdom  leading  cap- 
tivity captive.  In  the  sight  of  men  it  was  an 
hour  when  evil  exulted,  and  when  disaster  fell 
upon  the  worthy.  But  he  was  not  forgotten 
of  the  Master  whom  he  had  served.  The  angel 
who  had  appeared  to  him  in  the  hour  of  peril 
on  the  storm- tossed  sea,  "standing  by  him" 
in  the  night,  and  speaking  sweet  words  of  as- 
surance, came  again  as  under  the  convoy  of 
heavenly  attendants  he  joined  "the  glorious 

22 


St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

company  of  apostles,  the  goodly  fellowship  of 
the  prophets,  the  noble  army  of  martyrs,"  by 
whom  he  would  not  be  counted  among  the  least 
of  the  saints  of  God. 

The  times  of  Paul  are  to  the  highest  degree 
significant  because  they  gather  up  the  in- 
fluences of  Greece  and  Rome  during  centuries 
of  brilliant  development,  and  at  the  same  time 
cover  the  period  of  the  decadence  of  the  old 
philosophy  and  religion.  It  was  the  "fulness 
of  time  "  for  the  culmination  of  divine  plans, 
because  never  were  need  and  opportunity 
greater  than  during  this  critical  period.  That 
a  religion  so  radically  different  from  any  phase 
of  thought  or  mode  of  worship  previously 
known  should  have  secured  a  hearing  and 
gained  a  footing  within  the  empire  must  be 
reckoned  among  the  wonders  of  the  world 
How  this  came  about, — the  attempt,  the  hin- 
drances, the  helps,  the  victories, — is  not  only 
a  matter  of  historical  interest,  but  is  a  source 
of  enlightenment  concerning  the  most  essen- 
tial features  of  Christianity.  Peculiar  prob- 
lems are  being  constantly  faced  by  missionary 
enterprises.  Now  it  is  the  caste  system  of 
India;  now  the  exclusiveness  of  China;  the 
nationalism  of  Japan;  or  the  stolid  baseness 
of  the  South-Sea  islanders.  But  at  no  time 
did  so  large  and  complex  a  problem  present 

23 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

itself  as  in  the  middle  of  the  first  century.  It 
was  a  practical  question  to  be  solved  upon  the 
broadest  and  deepest  principle,  and  supported 
by  grace  and  power  above  any  standards  then 
known  to  the  world.  Under  the  leadership  of 
such  men  as  Paul  the  gigantic  enterprise  was 
carried  through.  Christianity,  having  sprung 
out  of  Judaism,  was  transplanted  and  made  to 
flourish  alike  in  the  soil  of  classic  and  bar- 
barous nations.  The  new  Gospel  was  pro- 
claimed, the  new  worship  set  up,  the  new 
order  of  life  established, — and  no  one  can  com- 
prehend the  meaning  and  worth  of  the  new 
religion  who  does  not  mark  the  conditions 
with  which  Paul  had  to  deal  and  the  ends 
which  he  sought  to  accomplish.  We  must 
understand  the  task  assumed  by  Christianity 
in  its  length,  breadth  and  complexity;  the 
hindrances  which  were  encountered;  the  un- 
avoidable delays  and  accommodations;  the 
adaptations  and  adjustments  which  had  to  be 
made;  the  many-sided  truth  which  had  to  be 
presented  to  men  of  many  minds;  and  the 
crude  beginnings  of  organizations  and  insti- 
tutions which  had  to  receive  more  perfect 
development.  For  the  initiation  of  this  move- 
ment looking  towards  the  evangelization  of  the 
world  Paul  was  the  "chosen  vessel"  of  God. 
He  was  appointed   "to  go  far  hence  unto  the 

24 


St.  Paul  and  His  Times 

Gentiles,"  as  an  apostle  whose  quenchless 
enthusiasm  was  to  suffice  for  the  most  arduous 
service  and  whose  appeals  were  to  shake  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars.  Born  during  the  reign 
of  the  mighty  Augustus,  he  lived  through  the 
shameless  administrations  of  Tiberius,  Cali- 
gula, and  Claudius,  suffering  martyrdom  under 
Nero  the  fifth  emperor  and  the  most  depraved. 
His  lifetime,  therefore,  covers  the  period  of 
critical  conflict  between  two  opposing  civiliza- 
tions. The  contest  itself  belongs  to  many 
centuries,  but  during  the  ministry  of  the 
apostle  the  mastery  of  human  thought  and 
action  passed  from  Caesar  to  Christ.  When 
Paul  died  Christianity  had  proved  itself  a  vital 
force;  and  to  him,  more  than  to  any  other, 
belongs  the  supreme  honor  of  successful  leader- 
ship in  a  world-wide  enterprise  for  a  true  re- 
ligion and  a  ceaselessly  progressive  civilization. 


25 


chapter  ii. 
The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

A  RELIGION  is  to  be  judged  not  merely, 
perhaps  not  primarily,  by  what  it  actu- 
ally accomplishes,  but  by  what  it  aims  to  do. 
The  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome  attempted 
little  of  practical  moment.  The  idea  of  affect- 
ing government,  molding  society,  or  even  in- 
fluencing public  sentiment  by  religion  was  as 
remote  from  the  classic  mind  as  from  that  of  the 
mystical  worshipers  of  the  East.  Mohamme- 
danism began  a  crusade  against  an  infidel  world 
and  from  the  days  of  the  Hegira  sought  to  win 
the  support  of  blindly  devoted  adherents. 
It  has  proved  itself  a  mighty  force  in  many 
nations,  and  has  more  than  once  changed  the 
history  of  populous  lands ;  but  it  has  not  aimed 
to  infuse  into  society  the  ideals  of  gentleness, 
kindness,  nobility  and  spirituality,  and  has 
not  succeeded  in  a  dozen  centuries  in  estab- 
lishing anywhere  on  the  globe  a  progressive 
civilization.  The  Hebrew  religion  produced  a 
sacred  literature  which  has  not  yet  been  out- 
grown;   but  with  a   moral   code   of    superior 

26 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

quality,  with  a  monotheism  of  exalted  type, 
with  a  history  full  of  promises  and  pledges  of 
divine  favor,  it  never  dreamed  of  becoming  an 
aggressive  and  redemptive  force  among  the 
nations.  It  was  always  self-centered.  In  no 
epoch  of  Jewish  history  did  the  loftiest  of 
kings  and  prophets  seek  to  extend  the  faith 
or  overthrow  the  idolatrous  and  abominable 
superstitions  of  less  favored  peoples.  Even 
when  unlooked  for  opportunities  presented 
themselves  in  Gentile  cities  like  Antioch  and 
Corinth  for  effective  propogandism,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Jewish  religion  were  content 
to  build  splendid  synagogues  under  the  shadow 
of  heathen  temples  and  exult  in  the  exclusive 
privileges  of  the  children  of  Abraham.  Unlike 
all  other  religions,  Christianity  had  its  orign 
in  the  sublime  self-sacrifice  of  One  who  came 
into  the  world  on  a  mission  of  love;  went  about 
doing  good ;  was  lifted  up  upon  a  cross  that  He 
might  draw  all  men  unto  Himself;  and  left  the 
scene  of  His  labors  with  words  of  command 
upon  His  lips  which  placed  His  disciples  under 
an  unrepealable  obligation  to  evangelize  all 
nations  in  His  name. 

The  genius  of  the  new  religion  was  first 
manifested  in  the  matchless  kindness  of  the 
Master  and  then  in  the  re-embodiment  of  that 
kindness  in  His  followers.     It  required  some 

27 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

weeks  of  meditation  and  prayer  in  that  upper 
room  where  the  Eleven  had  met  the  Risen  Lord, 
for  men  who  had  lived  in  the  narrowness  and  ex- 
clusiveness  of  the  earlier  religion  to  gain  un- 
derstanding, courage,  and  impulse  for  so  vast 
an  enterprise  as  the  conquering  of  the  world 
by  the  Gospel  of  salvation.  But  as  leaven 
works  in  the  lump  so  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
wrought  in  them.  It  was  only  a  question  of 
time  when  they  should  be  completely  leavened. 

Having  once  come  into  vital  contact  with 
One  who  lived  and  died  for  men  they  could  not 
be  long  content  in  the  selfish  and  unproductive 
enjoyment  of  a  saving  faith,  whose  action 
terminated  in  themselves. 

Some  practical  outworking  of  Christianity 
seems  quite  a  matter  of  course  to  those  who 
have  been  nurtured  in  its  precepts,  and  yet 
was  it  n(?t  a  most  amazing  thing  that  a  hand- 
ful of  obscure  men  should  have  assaulted  the 
customs  and  superstitions  of  ages  with  no  other 
weapon  than  the  spoken  word;  that  men  who 
were  so  provincial  as  never  to  have  crossed  the 
boundaries  of  Galilee  and  Judea  should  dream 
of  invading  the  great  Roman  world  with  a 
message  from  a  crucified  peasant?  Yet  that 
is  exactly  what  Peter  and  John,  and  a  little 
later  Barnabas  and  Paul,  did.  The  enterprise 
upon    which   they  embarked  did  not  seem  to 

28 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

them  desperate,  for  they  had  consciously  found 
the  distinctive  truth  of  Christianity  touching  the 
grace  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  men ;  they  also 
cherished  the  pledge  of  companionship  and 
power  from  the  Risen  Christ,  and  longed  to 
replace  wretchedness  and  despair  with  a  peace 
and  joy  which  should  fill  the  whole  world. 

The  divine  origin  of  Christianity,  and  its  fit- 
ness to  be  the  universal  religion,  are  no  less 
clearly  demonstrated  in  its  boldness  and  com- 
prehensiveness than  in  the  benevolence  of  its 
attitude  and  purpose  toward  mankind.  It  as- 
serted its  right  to  dominate  the  thoughts  and 
lives  of  men,  and  control  human  actions  with 
an  absoluteness  which  makes  the  despotism  of 
the  Caesars  seem  trivial,  and  the  superstitions 
of  the  ancients  as  passing  fancies.  For  all  time 
it  sought  to  forbid  things  that  once  were  ex- 
alted, subdue  passions  which  once  were*  rampant, 
demand  services  which  before  were  unasked; 
in  a  word,  it  sought  to  bring  every  thought 
and  imagination  into  captivity  to  the  obedience 
of  Christ.  It  is  not  conceivable  that  any 
human  mind  could  have  chanced  upon  so  novel 
a  scheme,  or  that  any  human  heart  could  have 
dared  such  impossibilities.  It  remained  for 
the  unfolding  counsels  of  God  to  bring  into 
the  light  a  secret  hidden  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  to- wit,  that  the  Gentiles  were  fel- 

29 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

low-heirs  with  the  people  of  Israel,  and  that 
by  the  grace  and  truth  of  the  Gospel  the  world 
itself  was  to  be  rescued  from  moral  ruin,  and 
the  whole  structure  of  human  society  rebuilt 
upon  the  foundation  of  a  pure  faith  and  an 
exalted  righteousness. 

How  comprehensive  was  the  work  upon 
which  Christianity  entered  appears  from  a 
more  detailed  study  of  its  stupendous  sweep. 
In  the  first  place,  it  sought  to  refine  and  ele- 
vate man ;  to  lift  each  individual  to  a  higher 
plane  of  existence  and  activity.  "  You  hath 
He  quickened,"  wrote  Paul  in  appeal  to  the 
consciousness  of  new  life  and  power.  Christians 
are  "new  creatures"  in  Christ,  of  whom  great 
things  might  reasonably  be  expected.  All  the 
faculties  of  man  were  to  be  aroused  and  brought 
into  full  play  by  the  revelations  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  touch  of  the  Spirit.  The  mind,  heart, 
conscience,  and  will  were  all  to  be  regenerated 
by  the  Divine  message.  But  the  scope  of 
Christianity  was  never  to  be  limited  by  the 
narrow  bounds  of  individual  existence.  Its 
aim  was  the  re-construction  of  society,  and  it 
might  almost  be  said  that  the  individual  was 
regarded  as  a  means  to  that  end — the  saving 
of  the  world.  The  whole  composite  life  of  man- 
kind was  to  be  redeemed  and  exalted.  The 
whole  order  of  human  life  was  to  be  radically 

30 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

changed,  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  world  was 
to  be  purified  aud  vitalized. 

To  begin  with,  the  sentiments  which  had 
prevailed  regarding  both  God  and  man  were  to 
be  essentially  modified.  The  frivolity  and 
baseness  which  characterized  Athens  and  Rome 
alike  grew  out  of  the  prevailing  notions  as  to 
the  manner  of  life  which  existed  among  the 
gods  of  Olympus  and  the  low  standards  of 
character  among  men.  No  inspirations  came 
from  above  and  no  aspirations  from  below. 
No  need  was  more  imperative  than  a  revelation 
of  the  actual  glory  of  God  and  the  potential 
glory  of  man.  Here  was  the  splendid  oppor- 
tunity to  which  the  Hebrew  people  had  been 
indifferent.  Their  earliest  Scriptures  contain 
a  sublime  portraiture  of  a  holy  and  majestic 
God,  a  gracious  and  compassionate  Jehovah, 
but  they  never  attempted  to  displace  the  Greek 
and  Roman  divinities,  never  thought  to  drive 
out  the  gods  of  the  heathen.  The  apostolic 
preaching,  however,  began  with  the  funda- 
mental truths  that  God  made  the  world,  that 
He  rules  in  righteousness,  that  He  redeems  in 
love  that  He  wants  the  confidence  and  obedi- 
ence of  men  who  cry,  <'Abba,  Father"  and 
know  themselves  as  sons  of  God. 

Where  other  religions  had  been  indifferent  or 
easily  tolerant  Christianity  was  insistent  and 

31 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

exacting.  The  uncompromising  attitude  of  the 
Apostles  excited  bitter  resentment.  Alike  by 
their  conviction  of  absolute  truth  and  by  their 
demand  for  reverence  they  stirred  the  skepti- 
cal to  animosity.  Sometimes  their  heathen 
auditors  mocked,  as  on  Mars  Hill;  sometimes 
they  persecuted,  as  in  Iconium  and  Lystra. 
But  no  species  of  opposition  prevailed  against 
the  determination  to  create  new  impressions 
concerning  the  dignity  of  God  and  the  worth 
of  man.  Newness  of  life,  a  change  as  deep  as 
the  human  soul  and  wide  as  the  human  race, 
could  not  come  while  men  laughed  at  their 
gods  and  imitated  their  reputed  vices.  They 
must  be  made  to  feel  the  reality  of  the 
holy  God  who  made  and  fills  the  universe,  His 
nearness  to  man,  His  watchfulness  and  solici- 
tude. His  fatherly  patience  and  His  helpful 
grace.  They  must  learn  to  exact  of  themselves 
purity,  sincerity,  kindness,  spirituality,  and 
begin  to  live  together  as  rational  and  moral 
beings  upon  whom  rested  the  highest  sanctions 
of  religion.  New  ideas  and  nobler  ideals  must 
have  currency  and  insensibly  impress  upon 
men  the  nobility  and  sacredness  of  life,  the 
whole  of  life  with  its  wide  range  of  thought, 
speech,  action  and  relationships. 

This  means  that  Christianity  not  only  sought 
to  introduce  a  new  type  of  personal  character 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

but  to  bring  about  new  relationships  among 
men,  and  to  rebuild  the  whole  fabric  of  society. 
The  vastness  of  the  undertaking  is  better  ap- 
preciated after  a  study  of  the  social  and  politi- 
cal   conditions    of    the   first   century.       It   is 
always  difficult  to  rescue  an   individual  from 
low  ideals  and  corrupting  habits,  but  to  reverse 
the  ideas  and  sentiments  of  a  community,  to 
seriously  modify  the  customs,  check  the  tend- 
encies, and  transform  the  spirit  of  the  world  is 
an  undertaking  so  delicate,  so  intricate  and  so 
complex  as  to  appall  the  boldest  mind.     But 
Christianity  could  not  fulfill  its  mission  until  it 
had   entered   with    regenerating    power   into 
every  department  of  the  corporate  life  of  man- 
kind, until   it   had  purified   and  elevated  the 
family,  society,  government ;  until  it  had  over- 
come apathy  and  dullness,   pride   and  preju- 
dice, passion  and  cruelty;  until  it  had  neutral- 
ized   the  selfishness  and  worldliness  so  domi- 
nant and  so  persistent  at  every  grade  of  life; 
and   until  it  had  so   reconciled  men  to  each 
other  as  to  make  harmony  and  mutual  help- 
fulness the  law  of  their  being. 

This  is  the  idealism  of  the  Grospels  and  the 
Epistles.  This  is  the  standard  set  by  the  ex- 
ample and  teaching  of  Christ  and  by  the 
urgent  preaching  and  impassioned  letters  of 
the  Apostles.     If  carried  out  to  perfection  it 

33 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

would  have  amounted  to  a  social  revolution,  for 
scarcely  any  sentiment  or  enterprise  of  the 
heathen  world,  whether  classic  or  barbarian, 
approached  the  new  standard.  Whatever  was 
unjust  or  unclean  was  bound  to  give  way,  what- 
ever was  of  superstition  and  idolatry  was 
bound  to  yield  to  new  and  higher  demands. 
All  Ephesus  was  in  an  uproar  because,  as  their 
opposers  admitted,  the  missionaries  of  the 
Gospel  had  turned  things  upside  down  in  the 
great  city  as  they  had  done  everywhere  else  in 
Asia.  The  new  evangel  which  they  pro- 
claimed interfered  with  the  profitableness  of 
trade  in  the  silver  images  of  the  great  goddess 
Diana,  now  hopelessly  discredited  by  apostolic 
preaching.  It  also  took  away  the  cruel  gains 
which  heartless  men  were  making  out  of  the 
wandering  fancies  and  mystic  words  of  a  hap- 
less maid  whom  Paul  afterward  brought  to  a 
sane  mind  at  Philippi.  Somewhat  later  it 
emptied  the  Roman  temples  throughout  the 
Roman  provinces  and,  as  Pliny's  letters  show, 
turned  the  stream  of  industry  and  trade  into 
other  channels  than  those  which  had  been  fed 
by  the  crowds  of  superstitious  pilgrims  that 
flocked  to  the  shrines  of  the  gods. 

It  was  in  part  because  Christianity  had  this 
high  mission  that  the  masterful  mind  of  Paul 
planned  for  so  many  campaigns  in   the  great 

34 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

cities  of  the  empire.  If  the  new  order  of 
social  life  could  be  established  in  populous  dis- 
tricts, and  could  illustrate  its  advantages  in 
great  centers  like  Antioch  and  Ephesus,  Cor- 
inth and  Rome,  a  new  standard  would  be  set 
up  throughout  the  Empire.  The  policy  de- 
vised and  strictly  pursued  by  the  Apostle  kept 
him  in  the  midst  of  the  most  intense  social 
life  of  his  day,  not  merely  because  greater 
numbers  were  thus  made  accessible  to  his 
preaching,  but  also  because  greatest  moral 
gains  were  made  by  counteracting  the  ancient 
tides  of  selfishness  and  corruption  by  the 
wholesome  tendencies  and  kindly  impulses 
flowing  from  the  character  and  doctrines  of 
Christ.  In  every  city  Paul  urged  such  pre- 
cepts and  principles  as  are  found  to-day 
scattered  through  his  Apostolic  letters.  Men 
were  called  to  remember  that  they  shared  the 
common  life  of  society  and  were  really  mem- 
bers one  of  another.  They  were  not  to  in- 
dulge in  falsehood  and  trickery,  for  that  would 
be  unneighborly;  they  were  not  to  steal  from 
one  another  or  seek  to  corrupt  another,  for 
that  would  be  un brotherly.  They  were  bound 
by  the  law  of  Christ  to  build  each  other  up  in 
all  wholesome  and  desirable  ways.  Masters 
were  to  be  forbearing  and  patient,  servants 
obedient   and   faithful;   parents    were    to    be 

35 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

watchful  for  the  true  nurture  of  their  children, 
and  children  in  turn  were  to  give  honor  and 
obedience;  husbands  were  to  show  affection 
and  respect,  and  wives  were  to  regard  the 
highest  interests  of  the  home;  in  short  every 
relationship  by  which  the  members  of  society 
are  held  together  and  work  together  was  to  be 
sanctified  by  the  spirit  of  Christ.  Under  all 
seeming  differences  of  endowment  and  functions 
one  spirit  was  to  prevail  for  the  sake  of  the 
peace  and  harmony,  the  prosperity  and  happi- 
dess,  of  the  whole.  One  was  to  use  his  gift  of 
prophecy,  another  his  property,  another 
his  high  office,  for  the  good  of  others. 
All  were  to  show  love  with  sincerity 
and  mercy  with  cheerfulness.  In  every 
way  Christianity  was  to  show  itself  to 
be  not  merely  a  religion,  not  merely  a  form 
and  mode  of  worship,  but  a  scheme  of  life  and 
action.  It  was  designed  to  enter  with  practi- 
cal precepts  and  abounding  grace  the  most 
sacred  domain  of  the  soul  and  the  most  com- 
plex relationship  of  society.  It  was  to  pro- 
mulgate a  perfect  code  of  morals  and  at  the 
same  time  prove  itself  a  social  force  for  the 
regeneration  of  human  life,  for  the  effective 
assertion  of  the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  and 
the  realization  of  the  highest  social  order. 
While    inculcating    an    ideal    standard    of 

36 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

thought  and    conduct  Christianity  accommo- 
dated itself  to  existing  conditions.     It  was  not 
so  transcendental  as  to  lose  touch  with  the  ac- 
tual life  of  society.     It  did  not  refuse  its  name 
or  its  benediction  to  those  who  did  not  fully 
live  up  to  its  sublime  principles.     For  instance, 
the  invariable  exaction  is  that  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  — "Be  ye  perfect  even  as  your 
Heavenly  Father  is  perfect."     One  who  has  a 
lower  aim  is  unworthy  to  call  himself  a  follower 
of  Christ.     One  who  could  rest  contented  while 
faults  of  character  were  apparent  would  miss 
the  consciousness  of  likeness  to  the  Master. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  patient  forbear- 
ing with  manifest  defects  and  even  open  trans- 
gression   when    men   were    sincerely  striving 
to   gain   the  mastery  of   self   and  the  world. 
When  all  of  the  Twelve  forsook  their  Lord  in 
the  hour  of  darkness  and  panic  when  the  mob 
broke  into  their  retreat  in   the  olive  garden 
on    the    slope  of   Olivet   he   had    no  word  of 
rebuke.      An    hour    later     their    leader    was 
denying  his  friend  and  master  in  the  palace 
of  the  High  Priest !     Yet  the  Risen  Lord  sent 
a  special  message  of  love  and  confidence  to 
Peter,  and  came  again  and  again  to  the  Upper 
Room  for  tender  conference  with  the  Eleven. 
Paul  wrbte  the  seventh  chapter  of  his  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  in  frank  exposure  of  his  pitiful 
37 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

struggles  against  the  passions  and  tendencies 
of  the  flesh, — but  he  also  penned  the  eighth 
chapter  in  which  he  rejoices  that  condemnation 
no  longer  rests  upon  him,  but  that  he  is  living 
in  the  Spirit,  and  that  he  has  the  witness  of 
highest  authority,  namely  that  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness, to  his  Sonship  with  God. 

With  the  same  recognition  of  the  necessarily 
imperfect  stages  of  social  life  Christianity 
adapted  itself  to  prevailing  laws  and  customs. 
Its  ideal  never  fell  by  the  breadth  of  a  hair 
below  absolute  reverence  to  God,  loyalty  to 
justice,  and  love  to  man ;  and  yet  from  the  first 
it  bore  patiently  with  the  established  order  of 
things,  waiting  for  the  time  when  its  precepts 
would  banish  cruelty  and  lust  and  inaugurate 
the  reign  of  peace  and  prosperity.  Christ 
said,  "Render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's,"  that  is,  the  things  that  are  his  not 
by  the  "divine  right"  of  kings,  but  by  the 
order  of  established  government.  There  was 
never  a  Caesar  who  sympathized  with  the  teach- 
ings or  accepted  the  demands  of  Christ — not 
even  Augustus  or  Marcus  Aurelius ;  but  often, 
as  in  the  case  of  Tiberius  and  Nero,  they  vio- 
lated every  instinct  of  humanity  as  well  as 
every  doctrine  of  pure  religion.  Yet  Christ 
let  the  injunction  stand  unqualified — "  Render 
to  Caesar  the  things  that  belong  to  him. "    Paul 

38 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

•  learned  from  the  teaching  of  the  Master  the 
duty  of  reverence  for  constituted  authority, 
and  joined  with  Peter  in  urging  obedience  and 
loyalty  to  "the  powers  that  be."  Some  legal- 
ized form  of  government  is  a  practical  neces- 
sity. Nothing  is  more  perilous  than  anarchy. 
Even  heathen  magistrates  are  set  for  the  re- 
pression of  crime.  They  insure  the  continu- 
ance of  society. 

Not  that  Christianity  was  never  indifferent 
to  injustice  or  tolerant  of  imperfection.  It 
held  inviolate  the  principles  of  manhood  and 
brotherhood.  It  never  abated  by  a  single  jot 
or  tittle  its  imperative  demand  for  sincerity, 
fairness,  gentleness  and  kindly  service.  While, 
therefore,  it  temporarily  accepted  the  law  and 
administration  of  the  Roman  Empire  it  was 
fundamentally  at  variance  with  the  corrup- 
tions and  oppressions  incidental  to  such  a 
godless  exercise  of  political  power.  It  was 
not  the  form  of  government  to  which  the  new 
religion  opposed  its  tenets.  The  political 
order  might  be  imperial  or  democratic,  the 
headship  of  the  state  might  be  determined 
by  heredity  or  election,  but  every  ruler  was 
under  obligation  to  govern  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord  and  in  the  interest  of  humanity.  Chris- 
tianity was  fearless  of  consequences,  while 
unflinchingly  maintaining  its  moral  standards. 

39 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

Proclaiming  principles  of  kindness  and  just- 
ness it  went  boldly  forth  to  take  its  chances  of 
life  in  the  great  heathen  world. 

It  is  important  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
that  it  is  the  mission  of  Christianity  to  cover 
the  whole  human  life  with  ' '  religious  sanc- 
tions." It  stands  apart  from  nothing  that 
pertains  to  thought  or  action.  Every  depart- 
ment of  human  existence  furnishes  a  field  for 
"applied  Christianity."  In  the  words  of  Paul, 
"Whatsoever  you  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God,"  we  have  an  injunction  which  is  both 
extensive  and  intensive.  There  is  no  hour  of 
life  when  the  obligation  does  not  press  upon 
men  to  love  God  with  all  their  heart,  and  their 
neighbor  as  themselves.  There  is  not  a  pro- 
ject to  be  cherished  nor  a  fancy  indulged  in 
which  springs  from  a  loveless  spirit.  There  is 
not  a  relationship  in  private  life  nor  a  function 
in  public  administration  that  is  beyond  the 
law  of  love  and  a  good  conscience.  To  inter- 
fere as  little  as  possible  with  the  common, 
everyday  life  of  the  citizen  has  been  declared 
to  be  the  ideal  of  government ;  but  it  is  the  glory 
of  Christianity,  and  its  unique  distinction, 
that  it  has  to  do  with  every  detail  of  life.  It 
assumes  the  herculean  task  of  controlling  all 
the  affairs  of  the  world,  in  the  Id  teres  t  of  the 
highest  manhood  and  of  the  perfection  of  social 

40 


The  Task  Assumed  by  Christianity 

life.  The  king  on  the  throne  is  not  above  the 
level  of  its  exactions,  the  slave  is  not  beneath  its 
benison.  The  solitary  wanderer  is  sought  by 
its  messengers.  The  crowded  quarters  of  the 
world's  capital  are  illumined  by  its  truth 
and  made  tolerable  by  its  grace. 

The  demands  of  the  new  religion  were  inex- 
orable, yet  it  went  everywhere  on  errands  of 
mercy  and  love.  Into  a  dark,  spiritless,  hope- 
less world  it  made  its  way  with  a  message  of 
cheer.  In  contrast  with  the  ' '  fanatical  mystic- 
ism "  of  the  oriental  religions,  the  "gloomy 
faith  '  of  the  old  Etruscans  and  Druids,  the 
nerveless  mythologies  of  the  Greeks,  and  even 
the  bigoted  exclusiveness  of  Judaism,  Christ- 
ianity was  charged  with  hope  and  help  for  all 
mankind.  It  had  no  esoteric  doctrines;  no 
hidden  mysteries  which  were  for  the  initiated 
few.  With  open  page  or  voice  it  proclaimed 
to  the  multitude  the  redemption  of  the  world 
and  the  birthright  of  all  believers.  Its  life  was 
in  its  message,  its  power  was  in  the  living 
word. 

In  the  year  70  A.  D.  Titus  declared  before  a 
Council  of  War,  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  that 
the  temple  must  be  destroyed  in  order  that  the 
religion  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Christians, 
which  he  identij&ed  as  one,  might  be  the  more 
completely  extirpated.     His  first  mistake  was 

41 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

in  supposing  that  either  form  of  religion  was 
detrimental  to  the  interests  of  mankind,  or  of 
the  Roman  state.  His  second  blunder  was  in 
calculating  upon  the  overthrow  of  Christianity 
in  the  destruction  of  either  temple  or  city. 
The  vital  elements  in  this  religion  are  its  noble 
truth,  its  revelation  of  the  righteousness  and 
lovingness  of  God,  and  of  the  essential  sonship 
of  man.  The  word  having  once  been  spoken, 
after  the  silence  of  the  ages,  the  echo  could 
never  be  lost.  The  message  having  once  been 
delivered  could  never  be  forgotten.  When  the 
covenant  which  the  Lord  had  made  with  Israel 
was  annulled,  it  was  not  by  way  of  exclusive- 
ness,  but  of  greater  inclusiveness.  Then  was 
given  the  wider  covenant  which  would  never 
be  retracted; — ''I  have  set  thee  for  a  light  of 
the  Gentiles,  that  thou  shouldst  be  for  salva- 
tion unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 


42 


chapter  iii. 

The  Political  Structure  of  the 
Roman  World 

IT  is  not  in  the  least  derogatory  to  Christ- 
ianity to  say  that  in  its  attempt  to  dominate 
the  world  it  depended  upon  outward  circum- 
stances; yea,  upon  the  rarest  possible  combina- 
tion of  outward  circumstances.  This  may  seem 
to  make  the  redemption  of  mankind  rest  upon 
fortuitous  conditions;  it  may  seem  to  iden- 
tify its  mission  with  historical  happen- 
ings of  most  unusual  and  unlocked  for 
character;  yet  that  is  a  universal  char- 
acteristic of  the  divine  plan  in  every  realm  of 
activity.  It  appears  in  every  critical  event  in 
history  and  in  every  form  of  life.  Not  a  plant 
comes  to  blossom  and  fruitage  without  passing 
through  a  thousand  vicissitudes;  not  a  project 
for  liberty  and  prosperity  but  runs  the  gaunt- 
let of  menacing  difficulties  and  oppositions. 
Moses  attempted  the  release  of  his  countrymen 
from  the  oppressions  of  the  Egyptian  govern- 
ment, but  was  obliged  to  save  himself  by  a 
hasty  flight  and  a  desert  exile  of  forty  years. 

43 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

There  was  just  one  weak  Pharaoh  to  be  held 
in  check  while  a  million  bondmen  marched  to 
freedom  through  the  land  of  Goshen  and  across 
the  sea.  There  was  just  one  Persian  ruler 
broad  enough  in  sympathy  for  a  captive  people, 
and  large  enough  in  plans  for  a  far  away 
province,  to  make  it  possible  for  men  of  Judah 
to  return  and  rebuild  Jerusalem. 

The  "fulness  of  time"  to  which  Paul  al- 
ludes had  reference  not  merely  to  the  intellect- 
ual and  moral  attitude  of  the  Chosen  People 
but  also  to  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
Gentile  world.  The  hour  had  at  last  come 
when  Christianity  would  find  events  favorable 
to  the  spread  of  its  doctrines  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  its  adherents.  It  would  have  gone 
down  with  the  Egyptian  dynasties,  it  would 
have  been  overrun  and  trampled  to  fragments 
by  the  Persian  invasion,  had  it  not  been  up- 
held for  centuries  by  the  strong  hand  of  Rome, 
until  it  had  become  mightier  than  the  Empire 
itself.  It  not  only  found  protection,  under 
the  aegis  of  Rome,  but  it  came  into  vital 
touch  with  all  the  elements  of  ancient  civiliza- 
tion which  had  been  conserved,  and  with  the 
beginnings  of  a  new  civilization  which  was 
destined  to  supplant  the  old.  One  of  the  pro- 
foundest  and  most  sympathetic  of  modern  his- 
torians has    said    that    ' '  Rome  is    the  bridge 

44 


Political  Structure  of  the  Roman  World 

which  unites  while  it  separates  the  ancient 
and  the  modern  world."  To  take  advantage  of 
the  figure,  Rome  is  the  bridge  on  which  Christ- 
ianity crossed  from  the  old  world  to  the  new — 
albeit,  it  took  four  or  five  centuries  in  crossing. 
Christianity  came  into  the  old  world,  but  it 
belonged  to  the  new.  The  old  world  was 
to  be  made  new  in  very  large  part  by  its 
implanted  truth  and  infused  energy.  From 
the  first  it  had  to  do  with  the  whole  of 
human  life,  individual  and  social,  religious 
and  political.  Therefore  it  was  concerned 
with  the  institutions,  laws  and  customs, 
the  arts  and  letters,  of  all  peoples.  Ulhorn 
has  said:  "The  ancient  world  culminated  in 
Rome,  and  Roman  history  is  the  rise  of  the 
Empire."  Yet  culminating  as  it  surely  did  in 
such  a  natural  expansion  as  the  world  has 
never  seen,  it  was  near  to  declining.  At  the 
opportune  moment  came  the  uprising  of  a  new 
and  saving  religion.  All  that  was  valuable, 
in  fact,  all  that  was  salvable  in  the  civilization 
of  antiquity  was  swept  within  the  lines  of  the 
advancing  armies  of  Rome.  There  it  was 
found  by  Christianity,  and  by  the  time  of  its 
transference  to  the  fostering  care  of  new  and 
independent  states  abundant  opportunities 
had  been  afforded  for  the  application  of  the 
principles  and  forces  of  the  new  religion. 

45 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

Melito,  one  of  the  early  Apologists,  empha- 
sizes the  fact  that  that  Christianity  and  the 
Roman  Empire  were  born  at  the  same  time, 
with  providential  adjustment  to  each  other. 
It  is  a  proverb  that  the  significance  of  histori- 
cal events  cannot  be  adequately  appreciated 
by  those  who  are  near  the  field  of  action;  but 
the  relations  between  the  religion  which  pro- 
claimed its  mission  to  redeem  the  world,  and 
the  political  power  which  had  mastered  the 
world,  was  patent  to  philosophical  observers 
of  that  very  age.  Indeed,  this  relationship 
did  not  escape  the  writers  of  the  earliest 
literature  of  the  new  religion,  though  they 
could  not  have  anticipated,  of  course,  the 
illuminating  records  of  the  great  centuries 
which  were  to  follow. 

Luke  wrote  as  simply  as  we  date  our  cor- 
respondence: "  Now  it  came  to  pass  in  these 
days,  there  went  out  a  decree  from  Caesar 
Augustus  that  all  the  world  should  be  enrolled  " 
— thus  locating  in  current  history  the  year 
when  Joseph  and  Mary  went  up  from  Galilee  to 
the  City  of  David.  It  was  a  matter  of  interest 
to  fix  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ, 
but  the  significant  thing  about  it  is  that  it 
should  have  been  done  through  its  connection 
with  political  events. 

The  birth  of  Christ  is  not  said  to  have  hap- 

46 


Political  Structure  of  the  Koman  World 

pened  so  many  years  ' '  since  the  building  of 
Memphis"  or  the  "capture  of  Babylon,"  or 
even  the  "rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,"  but  in 
the  very  year  in  which  Augustus  issued  a 
certain  edict.  Christianity  dated  its  birth  by 
that  of  the  Empire,  and  now  every  empire 
dates  its  documents  by  the  birth  of  Christ. 

One  cannot  read  the  history  of  Christianity 
apart  from  that  of  the  Empire,  from  the  reign 
of  the  young  Augustus  to  the  day  when  the 
senate  gave  over  the  government  into  the 
hands  of  the  Germanic  Odoacer.  Wherever 
Roman  organization  had  gone  there  went 
Paul,  the  wise  and  masterful  leader  of  the  re- 
ligious movement  for  the  conquest  of  the 
world's  conqueror.  The  relations  between 
the  two  empires,  religious  and  political,  were 
those  of  rivals.  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
emperors  furthered  the  interests  of  Christian- 
ity, although  not  seldom  they  were  bitterly 
hostile.  We  have,  therefore,  to  recognize  the 
combination  of  unfavorable  with  favorable  in- 
fluences coming  out  of  the  tremendous  and 
widely  extended  political  sway  of  the  Empire. 
At  times  its  whole  force  was  arrayed  in  un- 
compromising opposition  to  Christianity,  his- 
tory recording  no  fewer  than  ' '  Ten  G-reat 
Persecutions."  This  was  inevitable.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  a  rapacious  political  power 

47 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

could  not  tolerate  the  pretensions,  to  say  noth- 
ing about  the  actual  gains,  of  the  new  world- 
religion.  It  was  a  comparatively  easy  matter 
to  adopt  a  new  national  or  tribal  deity — a  few 
local  divinities,  more  or  less,  being  a  matter 
of  smallest  concern.  They  were  all  of  the 
same  order  and  could  be  fused  into  the  com- 
mon life.  They  might  even  contribute  some- 
thing to  the  state  by  deepening  the  loyalty  of 
some  new  people  of  the  ever  widening  empire. 
The  state  would  even  have  taken  Christianity 
under  its  protection  and  patronage  if  it  would 
only  have  made  a  few  concessions  to  the  an- 
cient faiths  and  the  supremacy  of  the  govern- 
ment; but  that  was,  of  course,  impossible.  It 
would  have  been  an  abrogation  of  its  most  dis- 
tinctive claim.  Early  ignorance  regarding 
the  unique  features  of  Christianity  did  secure 
temporary  exemption  from  harsh  treatment. 
For  some  decades  it  was  fortunately  classified 
with  the  prevailing  religions.  But  when 
it  began  to  manifest  its  absolute  and 
exacting  monotheism  ;  when  it  began  to 
reveal  its  purpose  to  modify  the  whole 
life  of  man  ;  when,  above  all,  its  tre- 
mendous claims  began  to  justify  themselves  in 
the  numbers  and  the  devotion  of  its  adherents, 
then  was  aroused  first  the  suspicion  and  later 
on  the  animosity  of  the  Eoman  officials.   Even 

48 


Political  Structure  of  the  Koman  World 

during  the  life  of  Paul  hostilities  broke  out. 
The  great  City  of  Rome  was  profoundly  stirred 
against  the  new  faith,  and  Nero  became  the 
first  of  a  long  list  of  persecuting  emperors. 

Yet  although  the  new  faith  came  into  such 
irrepressible  conflict  with  ancient  beliefs,  and 
crossed  swords  with  the  armed  representatives 
of  the  government,  it  could  not  have  conceiv- 
ably conquered  the  world  except  for  the  Em- 
pire. It  won  its  way  to  lasting  victories  by 
virtue  of  the  aid  unwittingly  furnished  by  a 
political  power  which  suddenly  changed  the 
tolerance  of  days  to  the  hatred  and  persecu- 
tion of  centuries.  For  hundreds  of  years 
Christianity  had  no  successful  mission  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  to 
this  day,  save  on  a  continent  then  undreamed 
of,  it  has  no  vigorous  and  independent 
life  except  in  lands  which  at  the  end 
of  the  first  century  were  under  the  sub- 
jection of  the  Roman  legions.  This  fact 
adds  significance  to  the  geographical  exten- 
sion of  Roman  authority.  The  Empire  became 
at  last  unwieldy  and  fell  to  pieces  by  the 
weight  of  its  far-away  provinces,  but  the 
genius  for  organization  and  administration, 
for  compelling  order  and  unity,  was  so  gigan- 
tic that  for  a  long  time  it  held  conquered  dis- 
tricts as  component  parts  of  the  great  whole, 

49 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

although  widely  separated  by  distance  and  by 
national  characteristics.  The  Roman  eagles 
were  known  all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Euphrates,  a  distance  of  three  thousand 
miles,  which  relatively  is  far  greater  than  to- 
day is  the  circuit  of  the  globe.  Upon  another 
line  of  measurement  the  legions  marched  from 
the  African  desert  and  the  Cataracts  of  the 
Nile  on  the  South,  to  the  Danube  and  Rhine 
on  the  North,  and  even  to  the  firths  of  Scot- 
land, enclosing  within  their  outer  lines  prob- 
ably not  less  than  a  hundred  million  diverse 
people.  Not  many  familiar  names  greet  one 
who  turns  to  a  map  setting  forth  the  Empire 
at  the  time  of  its  greatest  extent;  but  if  we 
were  to  designate  the  countries  as  they  are 
known  to  the  world  at  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  there  would  be  included  nearly 
all  the  states  of  modern  Europe  except  Ger- 
many and  Russia;  all  of  north  Africa,  then 
populous  and  flourishing;  all  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  then  composed  of  some  of  the  richest 
and  most  civilized  of  Roman  colonies;  all  of 
Armenia  and  Mesopotamia,  from  the  Caspian 
Sea  to  the  Persian  Gulf, 

An  immense  service  was  rendered  to  Christ- 
ianity, as  the  universal  religion  of  mankind, 
by  bringing  this  congeries  of  peoples  into  sub- 
stantial unity.     It  was,   to  be  sure,  first  of  all 

60 


Political  Structure  of  the  Roman  World 

an  enforced  unity,  and  to  the  end  was  more 
formal  than  real,  yet  it  was  sufficient  to  make 
the  impossible  possible.  Until  they  were 
cemented  together  under  the  Caesars,  these 
nations  had  lived  apart,  with  the  utmost  in- 
difference to  each  other's  welfare,  or  more 
frequently  in  mutual  antagonism.  But  na- 
tions became  provinces  and  were  covered  by 
the  one  name  which  was  infinitely  more 
powerful  than  all  the  independent  national 
titles  taken  together.  The  parts  were  articu- 
lated into  one  body  politic.  They  shared  in 
the  dignity  and  good  fortune  of  a  single  gov- 
ernment. They  came  to  have  common  ties, 
common  interests,  common  feelings.  They 
stood  together  in  all  that  concerns  safety  and 
general  welfare.  There  was  an  exchange  of 
garnered  treasures,  material,  social,  and  in- 
tellectual. The  heterogeneous  mass  of  coun- 
tries and  peoples  became  in  many  essentials 
homogeneous,  "All  the  elements  of  culture 
and  all  the  forces  of  civilization  being  com- 
prised in  one  empire.' 

At  any  previous  time  in  the  world's  history 
since  the  people  were  scattered  from  the 
plains  of  Shinar,  Christianity — if  it  had  ex- 
isted— would  have  been  confined  within  the 
boundaries  of  a  single  country,  and  compelled, 
if  it  depended  then  as  now  on  natural  laws    of 

51 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

development  and  propagation,  to  share  the 
fate  of  the  country  in  which  it  was  planted. 
Not  even  the  idea  of  a  universal  religion  would 
have  been  then  conceivable.  It  was  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  empire  that  broke  down 
narrow  national  limits  and  destroyed  walls  of 
social  partition.  For  the  first  time  an  aggres- 
sive policy,  with  a  sustained  missionary  activ- 
ity, became  possible. 

The  unity  which  gave  the  long  looked  for 
opportunity  was  of  advantage  first  of  all  in 
developing  a  sentiment  of  kinship  among  men. 
In  some  measurable  degree  men  came  to  feel  a 
sense  of  brotherhood  between  different  nations. 
Whereas  once  there  had  been  repulsion  now 
there  was  attraction  acting  through  the  com- 
mon bond  of  pride  and  advantage  in  the  em- 
pire. Carthagenians  and  Romans,  Greeks 
and  Parthians,  dwellers  on  the  Euphrates  and 
inhabitants  on  the  Nile  were  at  last  on  friend- 
ly terms.  Differences  of  name  and  speech,  of 
origin  and  political  history,  were  covered 
over  by  the  larger  fact  of  likeness  and  part- 
nership in  a  government  of  overwhelming 
majesty.  And  this  feeling  the  more  readily 
influenced  men  because  of  the  universal  con- 
dition of  peace.  For  a  time  the  war  trumpet 
was  silent,  swords  were  beaten  into  plough- 
shares, and  the  doors  of  the  Temple  of  Janus 

52 


Political  Structure  of  the  Koman  World 

were  closed.  As  one  by  one  the  wars  of  con- 
quest were  ended  the  work  of  peaceful  ad- 
ministration began,  and  hostile  tribes  and 
belligerent  nations  were  robbed  of  even  the  in- 
centives to  strife.  By  the  end  of  the  first 
century  Epictetus  could  write:  <' Caesar  has 
procured  for  us  a  profound  peace.  There  are 
neither  wars  nor  battles,  nor  great  robberies, 
nor  piracies." 

This  favorable  exemption  from  sanguinary 
struggles  which  would  have  disturbed  com- 
munities and  absorbed  thought,  was  followed 
by  the  helpful  administration  of  Roman  juris- 
prudence. We  are  accustomed  to  magnify 
the  genius  of  this  people  for  law  and  order, 
but  their  proclivity  in  this  direction  is  not 
mysterious  in  its  origin.  The  conditions  of 
social  and  political  life  on  the  bank  of  the 
Tiber,  in  the  earliest  centuries,  were  such  as  to 
necessitate  statutory  provisions  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  harmony.  With  so  many  clash- 
ing tribes  and  rival  classes  there  was  no  other 
modus  Vivendi.  The  very  existence  of  society 
demanded  clear  definition  and  rigid  enforce- 
ment of  rights.  Both  the  idea  and  the  prac- 
tical application  of  law  grew  with  the  growth 
of  the  city  and  of  the  Empire.  Within  the 
walls  which  encircled  the  Seven  Hills  the  con- 
tentions of  noble  and  peasant,  of  patrician  and 

53 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

plebian,  which  were  transmitted  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  compelled  the  Senate  to 
limit  privileges  or  grant  them,  as  the  case 
might  be.  Outside  of  the  walls  the  smaller 
cities  and  kingdoms  were  scheming  and  fight- 
ing for  grants  of  land,  right  of  trade,  and 
prerogatives  of  government. 

Hence  came  about  in  the  insensible  progress 
of  centuries,  first  municipal  regulations,  then 
colonial  privileges,  and  after  that  a  provincial 
system  of  government  which  covered  the  earth 
with  its  protecting  mantle.  It  was  a  superb 
development  of  law  and  order,  but  its  origin 
and  development  are  not  mysterious.  No 
social  or  political  facts  are  more  easily  ac- 
counted for,  but  they  are  not  for  that  reason 
any  the  less  significant. 

How  great  an  advantage  came  to  Christian- 
ity from  the  quietness  and  security  of  life  even 
in  remote  provinces  is  readily  seen.  The  new 
religion  did  not  seek  to  place  itself  in  author- 
ity as  immediately  controling  men  and  money 
and  directing  political  affairs,  like  Mohammed- 
anism, for  instance.  All  it  claimed  was  the 
privilege  of  undisturbed  labor,  the  opportun- 
ity to  preach  its  truths,  to  form  churches,  to 
do  its  silent,  unobtrusive  work  in  the  midst 
of  society.  It  was  therefore  of  the  greatest 
moment  that  lawlessness  should  be  repressed 

54 


Political  Structure  of  the  Koman  World 

and    outbreaks    speedily    checked.      It    is    not 
difficult  to  understand  how  Paul  could  enjoin 
respect  for  heathen  officers  of    state.      ' '  Put 
them  in  mind  to  be  in  subjection  to  rulers,   to 
authorities,  to  be  obedient ."    "  Let  every  soul 
be   in  subjection  to   the    higher    powers;    the 
powers    that   be   are   ordained   of   God.     For 
rulers  are  not  a  terror  to  the  good  work,    but 
to  the  evil."     In  every  city  and  village  of  the 
Empire   were  courts  and  magistrates   to  ad- 
minister   with  Roman   dignity  and  authority 
laws  of  justice  in  regard  to  property  and  life. 
The  details  of  such  a  widely  extended  system 
must  have  been  countless,  but  they  were  pro- 
vided  for  in    the  settled   and  comprehensive 
policy  of  Rome.     All  provinces  were    alike   in 
the  eye  of  the  law,  in  Italy  or  Spain,  in  Macedo- 
nia or  in  Celicia.     Some  communities  were  less 
refined  and  orderly  than  others,  but  there  were 
magistrates  for  Paul  to  appeal  to,  if  he  would, 
in    the  exercise  of   the   right   of   his   Roman 
citizenship,  in  Lystra  and  Derbe,  as  well  as  in 
Caesarea  and  Philippi. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  firm  administra- 
tion of  law,  which  must  be  accounted  an  abso- 
lute necessity,  was  the  extension  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  special  features  of  Grecian  culture 
require  more  careful  consideration  than  can  be 
here  accorded  them,  but  the  general  statement 

55 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

can  safely  be  made  that  enough  of  mental 
quickening  and  social  refinement  went  into  the 
provinces  along  with  the  armies  of  occupation 
to  greatly  facilitate  the  progress  of  the  Gospel. 
This  preparatory  work  was  not  altogether  de- 
void of  noble  motive,  although  no  emperor 
adopted  such  a  definite  and  vigorous  policy  as 
that  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  The 
Roman  people  were  proud  of  their  eminence 
and  believed  in  their  mission  to  civilize 
as  well  as  to  govern  the  world.  More  or 
less  consciously  they  were  instruments  of 
righteousness  in  developing  ideas  and  institu- 
tions among  nations  which  they  had  lifted 
out  of  sheer  bar*barism.  Multitudes  who  would 
otherwise  have  been  too  dull  or  base  to  give  in- 
telligent hearing  listened  responsively  to  the 
lofty  truths  of  the  Gospel.  This  was  true  in  the 
provinces  of  Asia  and  equally  true  in  western 
Europe.  For  instance,  a  half  dozen  years 
after  the  beginning  of  Paul's  ministry 
Claudius  came  back  to  Rome  from  the  shores 
of  Britain,  where  he  had  gone  to  complete  the 
conquest  which  Julius  Caesar  had  begun  a 
century  before.  When  Claudius  crossed  the 
channel  the  island  had  no  readiness  for  the 
Gospel.  Rude,  untrained  Britons,  to  whom 
words  of  gentleness  and  appeals  for  mercy 
would  have  been  as  empty  sounds,  roamed  the 

56 


Political  Structure  of  the  Roman  World 

forests.  But  the  Emperor  was  a  herald  of 
better  things.  He  supposed  himself  to  be 
merely  annexing  another  barbarous  province, 
but  he  was,  in  truth,  planting  the  seeds  of 
civilization  and  opening  the  way  for  a  more 
benificent  reign  than  that  of  Imperial  Rome. 
The  same  significant  changes  were  wrought 
on  the  other  side  of  the  British  Channel.  A 
century  before  Christ,  what  has  become  the 
fair  land  of  "sunny  France"  was  savage  in 
every  aspect  of  human  existence.  The  Com- 
mentaries of  Caesar  not  only  recount  his  vic- 
tories over  Celtic  and  Germanic  races;  they 
also  disclose  the  grade  and  conditions  of  life 
along  the  streams  and  among  the  forests  of 
Gaul.  We  are  made  to  see  the  rude  huts  rising 
above  the  river  banks,  the  warriors  in  savage 
dress  with  barbarous  weapons  grouped  in  scat- 
tered villages,  or  wandering  to  and  fro  in  half- 
aimless  migrations.  We  hear  the  sound  of  their 
clannish  warfare  and  of  their  baser  orgies.  As 
thus  we  look  into  the  darkness  and  behold 
brutish  instincts  and  low  ideals  we  wonder 
how  a  message  of  peace  and  righteousness 
could  ever  reach  such  minds  and  influence  such 
hearts.  But  Caesar's  work  for  the  Romanizing 
of  Gaul  bears  an  intimate  relation  to  Paul's 
work  for  the  christianizing  of  the  land.  The 
Apostle  followed  the  General  a  century  later, 

67 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

and  the  spiritual  conquest  was  the  speedier 
and  more  complete  because  of  the  earlier 
victories  of  arms. 

Another  advantage  came  to  Christianity 
through  the  provincial  system  of  Rome.  Routes 
of  communication  were  opened  and  guarded 
throughout  this  vast  territory.  One  rides  out 
of  the  ancient  capital  to-day  over  highways 
which  were  in  their  perfection  under  the  em- 
perors. One  enters  the  City  of  Chester,  the 
outpost  of  British  occupation,  over  roadbeds 
which  were  laid  eighteen  hundred  years  ago; 
and  adventurous  explorers  have  traced  the  lines 
of  imperial  roads  over  the  passes  of  Phrygian 
mountains.  It  was  a  simple  necessity  of  ad- 
ministration in  the  provinces.  Five  main 
lines  of  travel  came  out  of  the  Imperial  City 
and  branched  in  every  direction — through 
southern  Gaul  into  Spain;  through  France  to 
the  Scottish  border;  through  Milan  and  over 
the  Alps  to  Cologne  and  Leyden;  through 
Philippi  and  on  to  Ephesus  and  Antioch.  A 
traveler  could  measure  his  way  along  a  circuit 
of  seventeen  hundred  miles,  by  Roman  mile- 
stones, with  Roman  maps  in  hand.  Along 
these  far-extended  routes  there  was  a  constant 
stream  of  travel  for  military  or  commercial 
purposes,  so  that  no  herald  of  the  Gospel  need 
lose  his   way  or  be  hindered  in  his  journey. 

58 


Political  Structure  of  the  Koman  World 

Christianity  entered  Eome  before  the  eager 
Apostle  could  fulfill  his  desire  to  proclaim 
the  gospel  at  the  capital  of  the  world.  Pil- 
grims and  men  of  commerce  were  constantly- 
passing  from  Palestine  to  Italy,  and  not  a  few 
bore  with  them  the  message  of  salvation. 
Some  statesmen  regarded  with  disfavor  the  in- 
flowing tide  of  immigration  from  the  East, 
complaining  that  "theOrontes  was  pouring 
its  waters  into  the  Tiber;"  but  if  they  had 
been  wise  and  well  informed  they  would  have 
rejoiced  that  men  of  a  new  faith  could  find 
their  way  to  Rome,  and  that  swift  and  faith- 
ful Messengers  could  traverse  all  lands  with 
parchments  which  had  been  illuminated  by  the 
hand  of  one  who  was  a  citizen  of  the  Empire 
and  a  preacher  of  righteousness. 

Christ  delayed  His  coming  until  Caesar  had 
pushed  his  conquests  from  the  sea  to  the  great 
rivers,  and  humbly  built  His  kingdom  where 
an  earthly  potentate  had  in  some  sense  laid 
the  foundation.  So  heaven  has  often  con- 
descended to  be  helped  by  the  world.  But 
where  the  earthly  king  pitiably  failed  the 
Heavenly  King  gloriously  succeeded.  When 
the  Empire  could  do  no  more  for  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  world  the  Kingdom  took  up  the 
work  and  carried  it  on:  carried  it  on  more- 
over not  only  with  divine  patience  but  with 

59 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

divine  assurance;  and  it  will  continue  to  carry 
it  on  until  the  might  of  Caesar  is  surpassed 
by  the  gentleness  of  Christ. 


60 


chapter  iv. 
Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

IT  was  Christianity's  mission  to  remodel  the 
■'■  social  life  of  the  world,  beginning  with 
that  of  the  Roman  Empire.  With  this  in  view 
it  entered  into  existing  conditions,  and  main- 
tained a  temperate  and  flexible  adjustment  to 
them.  Before  it  was  a  problem  of  incalculable 
difficulty,  for  there  was  very  little  in  the 
structure  of  life,  either  at  Rome  or  in  the 
provinces,  which  corresponded  with  the  ideals 
of  a  pure  religion.  In  the  entire  round  of 
existence  Paul  would  have  searched  in  vain 
for  any  occupation  or  diversion  which  had 
been  influenced  by  sentiments  appropriate  to 
Christianity.  Neither  in  private  nor  in  public 
life  would  he  have  encountered  the  motives 
and  standards  which  he  represented  in  his 
own  inspiring  and  devoted  life.  In  the  Forum 
he  would  have  found  judges,  pleaders,  spec- 
tators; in  the  market  he  would  have  heard 
the  discordant  cries  of  buyers  and  sellers ;  in 
open  courts  before  the  temples  he  would  have 
witnessed  dancing,  dice  playing,  and  all  sorts 

61 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

of  frivolous  amusements;  at  the  public  baths 
he  would  have  listened  to  idle  chatter,  gossip, 
jest,  and  story;  at  some  of  the  great  domestic 
establishments  he  might  learn  of  protracted 
feasts  followed  by  unspeakable  revels,  but 
nowhere  would  he  come  into  contact  with 
forms  of  social  life  which  had  been  elevated 
and  beautified  by  such  ideals  as  were  embod- 
ied in  the  Gospel 

What  could  a  preacher  and  advocate  of  right- 
ousness  do  in  the  midst  of  activities  and  rela- 
tionships so  completely  out  of  accord  with  the 
standards  upon  which  he  must  insist?  If  he  was 
wise  he  would  not  demand  that  individuals 
should  step  out  of  the  ranks  of  society,  withdraw 
from  accustomed  engagements,  and  break  all 
ties  of  kindred  and  friendship.  Christianity 
aimed  to  do  its  regenerative  work  for  the  cor- 
porate life  of  mankind  as  well  as  for  elect  indi- 
viduals. Paul  followed  the  policy  adopted  by 
the  Divine  Master,  who  was  his  pattern  and 
leader.  Christ  began  with  Peter,  Nicodemus, 
the  woman  of  Samaria,  and  Zacchaeus,  undis- 
mayed by  their  crudeness,  accepting  them 
as  disciples  at  the  earliest  stage  of  develop- 
ment, and  even  going  on  to  "call"  other 
men  and  women  as  worldly  as  these 
had  been.  In  pursuance  of  the  same 
policy  he  took  his  place  at  a  feast  given  by  a 

62 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

retired  collector  of  customs,  who  had  invited 
many  publicans  to  meet  him  as  his  friends ;  and 
some  years  later  he  even  asked  for  hospitality 
at  the  hands  of  such  an  official  at  Jericho. 
Again  and  again  it  is  recorded  of  Christ  that 
He  was  the  guest  of  some  Pharisee,  whose 
every  notion  of  life  and  religion  was  unlike 
His  own ;  and,  doubtless,  if  the  centurion  had 
shown  gratitude  for  the  recovery  of  his  boy 
by  a  gathering  of  Roman  officers  to  welcome 
the  Miracle  Worker,  he  would  have  courteously 
met  the  social  demands  of  the  hour. 

Later  on  in  the  century,  when  apostles  were 
planting  religious  truth  here  and  there  through- 
out the  Empire,  it  became  necessary,  in  the 
same  way,  to  bear  with  conditions  wholly  at 
variance  with  their  standards.  An  infinite 
number  of  perplexities  arose  in  every  com- 
munity, as  the  Epistles  bear  evidence;  they 
being  largely  devoted  to  practical  questions 
which  had  been  referred  to  the  Apostles  for  set- 
tlement. When  Christians  could  not  determine 
what  their  religion  permitted  or  required,  es- 
pecially in  churches  which  were  part  Gentile 
and  part  Jewish,  in  homes  half  Christian  and 
half  heathen,  and  in  occupations  and  ceremonies 
wholly  unsanctified,  they  sent  a  messenger  to 
the  Founder  of  the  church  to  ask  how  He  would 
apply  the  principles  He  had  preached,  and  so 

63 


In  The  Time  of  Faul 

help  them  to  readjust  their  disturbed  relation- 
ships. The  kind  of  questions  He  was  asked  to 
answer  was:  Under  such  and  such  circum- 
stances what  concessions  could  be  safely  made; 
under  such  and  such  demands  by  heathen  offi- 
cials or  un-Christian  husbands  how  much  could 
be  properly  granted? 

To  study  the  social  structure  of  the  Empire 
in  the  first  century  is  to  find  new  ground  for 
admiration  for  a  religion  bold  enough,  gentle 
enough,  delicate  enough  to  adjust  itself  to  such 
diverse  and  unfriendly  conditions,  and  yet 
mighty  enough  to  triumph  over  habit  and  pas- 
sion, over  dullness  and  perversion,  and  at  last 
modify  the  long-established  order  of  ancient 
Rome. 

Consideration  of  the  social  life  of  any  age 
should  begin  with  the  family,  for  that  has  al- 
ways been  and  must  ever  be  the  basis  of  so- 
ciety. Among  the  Jewish  people  there  had 
resulted  from  the  training  of  many  centuries 
an  ideal  of  home  life  immeasurably  superior  to 
that  of  contemporaneous  nations.  Both  tradi- 
tion and  written  precept  inculcated  kindness 
in  parents  and  obedience  in  children.  Very 
much  was  made  of  the  family  life.  Every  anal- 
ysis of  social  life  came  at  last  to  this  unit. 
The  nation  was  divided  into  tribes,  the  tribes 
into  families.     In  each  family  the  father  was 

64 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

under  bonds  to  give  tender  care  and  training 
to  his  child  and  the  "first  command  with 
promise"  enjoined  upon  children  was  the  hon- 
oring of  father  and  mother.  Wherever  a  syn- 
agogue was  found  the  Apostles  took  swift 
advantage  of  the  instruction  that  had  already 
been  given  in  righteousness  and  kindliness; 
and  the  infusion  of  religious  sentiments  which 
in  every  community  came  from  Jew  to  Gentile 
must  have  greatly  facilitated  the  work  of  the 
Gospel.  Outside  of  Israel  there  was  properly 
speaking  no  home  life.  In  the  early  and  vig- 
orous days  of  Rome  marriage  had  been  crowned 
with  the  highest  honor,  and  for  centuries  di- 
vorce was  unknown.  But  by  the  time  of 
Augustus  the  family  institution  had  fallen  into 
shameful  discredit  and  the  position  of  women 
— which  of  itself  determines  the  grade  and 
quality  of  civilization — had  become  deplorable. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  teachings  of  Christ  to 
correspond  with  that  Grecian  thought  con- 
cerning woman  and  her  place  in  the  family 
which  was  adopted  at  Rome  to  its  incalculable 
injury.  "Plato  represents  a  state  as  wholly 
disorganized  where  wives  were  on  an  equality 
with  their  husbands."  Aristotle  expressly 
characterizes  women  as  "beings  of  inferior 
kind." 

Family  life,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  words, 

65 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

the  Greek  did  not  know.  He  sought  happi- 
ness elsewhere  than  at  his  own  hearth.  "Is 
there  a  human  being, "  asks  Socrates  of  a  friend, 
"with  whom  you  talk  less  than  with  your 
wife?  "  Demosthenes  acknowledged  that  phil- 
osophy had  not  enriched  the  home.  It  could 
not,  because  it  was  fundamentally  at  fault  in 
this  regard  and  threw  itself  directly  in  the 
path  of  a  religion  in  which  were  strict  injunc- 
tions for  kindness  and  purity  in  the  closest 
relationships  of  life. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  the 
marriage  laws  had  become  utterly  powerless, 
and  the  institution  of  the  family  utterly  with- 
out value.  It  had  once  been  both  the  glory 
and  the  strength  of  the  nation  in  the  good  old 
days  when  the  Roman  matron  was  respected 
for  her  virtue  and  cherished  for  her  loveli- 
ness, and  the  old  marriage  laws  could  not 
be  repealed  nor  could  the  sentiments  from 
which  they  had  sprung  be  entirely  uprooted. 
So  far  as  the  provinces  were  concerned,  also, 
there  was  a  large  remnant  of  power  for  social 
purity  and  good  order  in  the  ordinances  which 
were  enforced  among  the  rudest  peoples. 
Those  only  were  recognized  as  having  the 
privileges  of  Roman  citizenship  who  had  been 
born  of  legitimate  marriage;  which  was  an 
immense  advance  upon  the  indifferent  customs 

66 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

of  orientals  and  savages.  The  influence  of  the 
higher  type  of  civilization  and  of  the  constant 
enforcement  of  law  was  felt  throughout  the 
populous  regions  of  Asia  Minor  as  a  check 
upon  the  license  which  had  been  prevalent, 
and  undoubtedly  proved  an  educating  and 
constraining  force  toward  a  higher  grade  of 
social  morality. 

The  lowest  depths  were  reached  in  the  great 
cities,  especially  in  Rome.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  not  far  to  seek.  All  tendencies  to 
evil  melt  together  into  a  mighty  current  in  a 
thoroughly  godless  city,  and  in  the  world's 
capital  the  stream  of  lust  and  worldliness 
swept  everything  before  it,  like  a  swollen 
torrent.  The  sanction  of  religion  was  quite 
absent  from  the  ceremony  of  marriage,  which 
came  to  be  regarded  as  merely  a  civil  contract, 
easily  made  and  easily  dissolved.  Very  often 
young  girls  were  disposed  of,  according  to  the 
whim  or  the  political  or  financial  advantage 
of  their  parents  ;  in  fact,  the  Latin  has  no 
phrase  in  which  a  suitor  could  seek  the  con- 
sent of  a  maiden  to  honorable  marriage.  It 
was  an  arrangement  between  other  parties 
than  those  most  concerned,  making  noble  sen- 
timent and  generous  purpose  absolutely  for- 
eign to  an  ill-assorted  union,  which  fre- 
quently brought  strangers  under  a  bond  which 

67 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

might  never  be  otherwise  than  distasteful  to 
them. 

Marriage  took  the  girl  from  a  life  of  irksome 
and  profitless  seclusion,  and  in  a  day  bestowed 
upon  her  almost  boundless  liberty,  liberty  for 
which  she  may  have  longed,  but  for  the  proper 
use  of  which  she  had  not  been  trained. 
She  could  for  the  first  times  sit  at  feasts, 
visit  freely  temple,  circus,  amphitheater,  and 
even  the  public  baths.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  distate  for  marriage  grew  into 
formidable  proportions  among  men.  The 
large  majority  refused  to  accept  the  valueless 
bond,  until  patriots  like  Metellus  appealed  to 
men  to  marry,  not  for  the  blessings  of  com- 
panionship and  a  home,  but,  with  better  pros- 
pect of  cordial  hearing,  for  the  sake  of  the 
state. 

Out  of  such  marriages  as  these  proper  home 
life  could  not  issue.  Parents  had  neither  love, 
nor  the  sense  of  responsibility,  toward  their 
offspring.  The  father  had  absolute  right  over 
the  disposition  of  his  child  and  was  restrained 
neither  by  law  nor  by  public  opinion  from  neg- 
lect or  cruelty.  For  the  most  part,  in  the  de- 
generate days  of  the  Empire,  children  were  ac- 
counted a  burden,  and  were  frequently  dis- 
posed of  by  exposure.  Infanticide  became 
frightfully   prevalent.     In   no   case  were  the 

68 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

children  who  were  allowed  to  live  nourished 
with  maternal  care,  or  trained  with  paternal 
solicitude.  At  an  early  age  they  were  sent  to 
a  slave  or  f  reedman  to  be  taught  the  rudiment- 
ary principles  of  reading,  writing  and  arith- 
metic ;  thus  often  being  exposed  to  the  most 
demoralizing  influences.  Later,  if  their  edu- 
cation was  to  be  carried  on  further  they  began 
to  read  standard  authors  in  both  Greek  and 
Latin  ;  such  as  Homer,  Virgil  and  Horace. 
The  next  stage  brought  them  to  a  rhetorician 
for  discipline  in  public  speaking,  which  was 
deemed  the  high  road  to  "success;"  the  next 
to  the  lectures  of  certain  philosophers.  They 
were  also  put  under  the  physical  training  of 
professional  athletes.  As  to  moral  teachings 
we  have  conflicting  reports.  Very  often  it 
must  have  found  no  place  in  a  course  deter- 
mined by  an  ambitious  but  dissolute  parent; 
although  high-minded  men,  like  Pliny  and 
Quintilian,  would  doubtless  seek  to  develop  re- 
verence for  justice,  decency  and  patriotism. 
In  rare  instances  Roman  youths  completed 
their  studies  by  extensive  travels  through  the 
Empire  and  by  residence  at  Athens. 

The  preaching  of  Paul  evidently  dwelt  largely 
on  the  mutual  obligations  of  the  home;  for  em- 
phatic and  repeated  commands  are  to  be  found 
in  all  of  his  Epistles.     His  words  must  have 

69 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

sounded  strange  to  most  of  his  auditors  and  in 
many  households  must  have  awakened  new  af- 
fections and  made  real  the  relationships  which 
had  before  only  a  nominal  existence. 

Society  was  divided  into  classes  which  were 
differentiated  by  marked  characteristics.  In 
our  time,  when  problems  touching  the  common 
life  of  humanity  excite  profound  consideration, 
it  is  pitiful  to  see  the  divergencies  which  in 
every  great  city  rend  asunder  the  mass  of  pop- 
ulation. So  was  it  in  Rome.  There  was  as 
nearly  as  possible  a  reversal  of  ideal  condi- 
tions. It  was  not  so  much  a  question  of  "so- 
cial order"  as  of  social  disorder;  not  so  much 
an  enquiry  regarding  "general  prosperity" 
as  the  prevalence  of  universal  wretchedness. 
"The  whole  structure  of  pagan  civilization 
was  really  based  on  a  foundation  of  crushed 
and  forgotten  humanity."  The  lower  orders 
of  society  scarcely  find  mention  in  the  writings 
of  the  day.  We  have  at  command  volumes  of 
history,  letters,  orations  and  poems  referring 
to  every  phase  of  existence  among  the  favored 
classes,  but  there  are  no  pictures  from  the 
lives  of  the  lowly.  We  know  enough  in  a  gen- 
eral way  about  the  debasement  and  squalor  at 
the  bottom  of  society,  among  the  submerged 
nine-tenths,  enough  for  tears  and  groans  in 
behalf  of  the  hopelessly  wretched,  but  the  de- 

70 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

tails  are  lost  forever.  Luxury  and  pride  paint 
themselves  vividly,  though  in  a  grotesqueness 
of  which  they  are  unconscious,  but  groveling 
poverty  does  not  care  to  put  itself  upon  can- 
vas. It  is  only  by  piecing  together  scraps  of 
information  and  inferences  gathered  here  and 
there  that  we  are  able  to  reconstruct  a  social 
condition  which  becomes  more  and  more  re- 
mote from  prevailing  types  of  civilization. 

Christianity  suffered  unavoidably  from  the 
class  distinctions  and  conflicts  of  the  Empire, 
just  as  it  has  been  compelled  to  go  halting 
through  India,  by  reason  of  the  caste  system. 
It  was  not  only  hindered  by  the  greed  and  lust 
of  the  rich  and  by  the  incapacity  and  misery 
of  the  poor,  but  its  precepts  of  industry  and 
manliness  were  nullified  by  an  unyielding  con- 
tempt among  every  class  for  all  forms  of  work. 

Labor  was  not  only  wanting  in  honor,  it  was 
under  the  ban  of  public  opinion.  It  was  con- 
sidered disgraceful  to  engage  in  productive 
enterprises,  thus  making  the  existence  of  a 
sturdy  ''middle -class,"  which  has  always 
proven  the  reliance  of  progressive  nations, 
absolutely  impossible.  Even  Plato  justified 
the  contumely  which  was  heaped  upon  those 
"whose  employment  would  not  permit  them 
to  devote  themselves  to  their  friends  and  the 
state."     Aristotle  taught  no  higher  wisdom; 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

maintaining  that  ''all  forms  of  labor  which  re- 
quire physical  strength  are  degrading  to  a 
freeman,"  on  the  ground  that  "Nature  had 
created  for  such  purposes  a  special  class." 
Even  the  noble  minded  Cicero  is  on  record  as 
asserting  that  "the  mechanic's  occupation  is 
degrading,"  because  "the  work-shop  is  incom- 
patible with  anything  exalted."  Every  word 
and  act  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  every 
trait  of  His  character  and  every  impulse  of  His 
grace,  is  opposed  to  such  a  rating  of  men  and 
to  the  continuance  of  social  separations. 
Christianity  had  a  message  of  dignity  and 
hope  for  all;  it  asked  only  for  honesty  and 
earnestness  in  such  pursuits  as  were  possible 
in  the  ordering  of  life  for  each  man,  but  its 
voice  was  drowned  by  the  clamor  of  the  "priv- 
ileged" and  the  outcries  of  the  wronged. 

At  the  summit  of  society  were  the  nobles, 
of  hereditary  rank,  and  the  wealthy,  of  whom 
not  a  few  had  climbed  from  lower  levels,  from 
the  most  part  by  trickery  or  truckling.  But 
in  comparison  with  the  multitudes  they  were 
not  numerous.  The  patricians  were  never  in 
a  majority  and  were  not  relatively  increased 
by  the  influx  of  population  from  every  prov- 
ince of  the  Empire.  The  very  rich  depended 
upon  enormous  grants  of  land  and  the  unwill- 
ing and  poorly  requited  services  of  the  lower 

72 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century- 
orders.  In  Nero's  reign  half  of  the  province 
of  Africa  belonged  to  six  great  landlords. 
Officials  amassed  incomputable  fortunes — mil- 
lions upon  millions  of  sesterces,  but  the  Senate 
was  a  limited  corporation,  and  financial  mag- 
nates like  Pallas  and  Narcissus  are  quickly 
enumerated.  From  the  height  of  the  few  we 
make  a  long  descent  to  the  next  lower  strat- 
um of  society.  The  absence  of  the  self-re- 
specting middle  class, — independent  farmers, 
artisans,  traders, — who  could  feel  themselves 
a  part  of  the  corporate  body,  having  free  and 
satisfying  industries,  and  bearing  a  share  of 
responsibility  for  the  general  welfare,  precipi- 
tates us  to  the  level  of  men  who  could  endure 
public  disregard  and  contempt.  Even  the 
professions,  especially  medicine,  were  in  the 
hands  of  freedmen  and  slaves.  Architecture, 
sculpture  and  painting  were  considered  un- 
worthy occupations  for  aristocrats.  Thus 
through  the  unreasonable  pride  and  vanity  of 
the  day,  many  men  of  intellectual  power  and 
artistic  genius  were  barred  from  wholesome 
and  profitable  pursuits,  which  were  degraded 
by  the  hands  to  which  they  were  relegated. 

Beneath  this  class  of  workers,  small  in 
numbers  and  esteem,  came  the  uncounted  mass 
of  men  who,  in  two  well  defined  classes,  pau- 
pers and  slaves,  made  up  the  greater  part  of 

73 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

the  population  in  the  first  century.  The  de- 
pendent poor  of  the  great  city  may  be  divided 
into  two  sections,  the  majority,  who  were  ab- 
ject in  their  poverty,  and  the  minority,  who 
made  some  pretension  to  comfort  and  respect- 
ability. These  were  destitute  of  property  and 
were  only  saved  from  reliance  on  the  daily 
dole  of  bread  from  the  hand  of  the  state  by 
private  benefactions.  It  was  a  part  of  the 
vapid  sentiment  and  senseless  display  of  the 
age  that  rich  men  should  parade  their  depend- 
ents before  the  public,  a  fashion  which  proved 
equally  ruinous  to  both  parties.  The  patron 
in  lavish  magnificence  of  dress,  was  accompa- 
nied through  the  crowded  streets  by  throngs 
of  attendants  who  performed  insignificant  or 
imaginary  services  and  offered  every  conceiv- 
able kind  of  flattery  and  attention.  There 
was  no  manly  and  productive  employment  for 
such  poverty-stricken  individuals,  and  conse- 
quently they  lived  in  a  state  of  miserable, 
degrading  parasitism.  Even  men  of  respect- 
able origin  dragged  honorable  names  down  to 
the  mire  of  ignominy,  counting  it  almost  a 
boon  of  fortune  to  live  in  pusillanimous  de- 
pendence upon  the  bounty  of  those  men  who 
treated  them  with  almost  limitless  contempt. 
There  was,  nevertheless,  a  lower  depth  of 
infamy  and  wretchedness  for  the  common  herd 

74 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

of  humanity,  whose  hunger  was  appeased  by 
public  largesses  of  corn,  and  whose  dangerous 
restlessness  was  held  in  check  by  the  diver- 
sions and  excitements  of  the  amphitheater. 
Rome  was  crowded  with  such  irresponsible 
people  who  had  flocked  thither  for  the  very 
purpose  of  eating  the  bread  of  idleness  and 
worthlessness.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the 
Capital  contained  not  fewer  than  two  hundred 
thousand  of  these  wretched  and  debased  crea- 
tures, who  made  up  the  mobs  which  howled  at 
the  public  games  and  wasted  the  rest  of  the 
day  in  frivolous  and  demoralizing  amusements. 
The  distribution  of  corn  to  this  dangerous 
horde  was  not  in  the  least  prompted  by 
charity.  It  was  regarded  simply  as  a  measure 
for  the  safety  of  the  state.  This  social  resi- 
duum was  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the  political 
and  social  constitution  of  society,  and  as 
beyond  mitigation  by  any  measures  or  motives 
known  to  the  Roman  officials.  Even  at  its 
best  the  policy  of  the  emperors  only  tempor- 
ized with  the  evil  which  grew  apace.  Every 
gift  and  concession  tended  toward  further 
pauperizing  and  debasement.  The  multitudes 
fell  into  more  absolute  and  hopeless  destitu- 
tion, and  the  mobs  grew  more  and  more  reck- 
less and  exorbitant  in  their  clamors  for  relief 
and  favors,     The  fear  increased  lest  an  out- 

76 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

break  from  this  accumulated  mass  of  irrespon- 
sible humanity  should  overwhelm  the  lives  and 
property  of  the  few  who  had  so  much  at  stake. 

This  fear  was  enhanced  by  the  possibility  of 
a  slave  insurrection;  for  in  the  social  reckon- 
ing there  were  tens  of  thousands  who  were 
more  miserable  than  the  paupers,  in  that  they 
lacked  even  the  semblance  of  freedom.  Beneath 
every  other  social  level  was  a  mass  of  slaves,  ex- 
ceeding in  number  the  entire  remainder  of  the 
population.  These  were  the  chattels  of  the 
Roman  people.  They  were  not  even  thought 
of  as  human  beings,  but  they  nevertheless 
throbbed  with  the  common  life,  and  imperiled 
society  by  their  degradation  and  unspeakable 
wretchedness. 

This  iniquitous  system  was  not  merely  en- 
trenched in  immemorial  custom,  but  existed, 
irrational  and  inhuman  as  it  was,  by  virtue  of 
the  uniform  teachings  of  philosophers  and 
sages.  It  had  the  sanction  of  the  highest 
authorities  in  ethics.  The  slave  was  not  a 
man.  There  belonged  to  him  neither  free  will 
nor  claim  to  justice.  Even  Plato,  "  the  noblest 
thinker  of  antiquity,"  maintained  that  slavery 
was  a  natural  institution.  Aristotle  taught 
that  the  ideal  household  was  provided  with 
two  sorts  of  instruments,  inanimate  and  ani- 
mate; slaves   without   souls   and  slaves    with 

76 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

souls ;  but  the  soul  of  a  slave  was  regarded  as 
imperfect  because  devoid  of  will.     So  mightily 
did  such  sentiments  sway  even  the  best  of  men 
that  Cicero  apologizes  for  the  grief  he  could 
not  altogether  suppress  upon  the  loss  of  a  slave 
to  whom  he  had  become  attached.    ' '  Sosithenes 
is  dead,"  he  wrote  his  friend  Atticus,  "and 
his  death  has  moved  me  more  than  the  death 
of  a  slave  should" — just  as  to-day,  one  might 
be  chagrined  to  be  found  in  tears  over  the  loss 
of  a  dog  pet.      The   Roman    law  made  care- 
ful distinctions  against  this  hapless  portion  of 
humanity.     The  slave  was  not  a  person,  but 
only  a  thing,  and  therefore  the  absolute  prop- 
erty of  his  master.    This,  of  course,  made  mar- 
riage an  absurdity,  and  although  there  was  no 
escape  from  the  phrases  which  indicate  human 
relationships  the  words  were  declared  to  have  no 
legal   meaning.       There    were    "families"    of 
slaves,  with  the    "father"  or   "brother,"  but 
these  terms  were  as  nearly  as  possible  emptied 
of  significance  when  applied  to  bondsmen.    The 
slave  market  was  a  chattel  market.   The  vendor 
cried  his  wares,  the  buyer  examined  his  goods, 
the    purchaser    treated    his    newly   acquired 
property  according  to  the  whim  of  the  moment. 
During  the  day  slaves   worked  in  chains;  at 
night    they   were   huddled   in   barracks    half 
under  ground.     They  were  branded,  flogged, 

77 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

crucified,  according  to  the  pleasure  or  passion 
of  the  owner. 

In  wealthy  households  their  work  might  be 
light  and  the  conditions  of  existence  less  rigor- 
ous. Indeed,  slaves  were  multiplied,  in  vulgar 
display  of  extravagant  luxury,  until  they  became 
a  burden  and  embarrassment  because  no  sort  of 
employment  could  be  devised  for  them.  Curi- 
ous offices  were  invented  as  a  relief  to  the  situa- 
tion. There  was  a  "  f  older-of-clothes ;"  a  "cus- 
todian of  Corinthian  vases;"  a  "sandal-boy," 
whose  sole  occupation  was  putting  on  and  remov- 
ing his  master's  shoes;  "letter-carriers,"  and 
attendants  without  number.  Such  slaves  made 
up  an  idle,  unwilling,  almost  unmanageable 
household,  under  direction  of  a  head-slave  who 
was  responsible  for  their  behavior  and  industry. 
Besides  these,  there  were  a  few  educated  slaves: 
secretaries,  librarians,  and  readers,  who,  on 
the  one  hand,  ministered  to  the  pride  and  self- 
indulgence  of  their  masters,  and  on  the  other, 
scarcely  felt  the  instincts  of  manhood  or 
womanhood.  The  whole  system  was  hopelessly 
enervating  and  debasing. 

To  study  the  social  structure  of  the  Roman 
Empire  is  to  discover  the  gigantic  task  as- 
sumed by  Christianity  in  its  unique  undertak- 
ing to  uplift  the  entire  life  of  mankind.  To 
elevate  the  consciousness  of  the  individual,  to 

78 


Social  Life  of  the  First  Century 

purify  and  enoble  the  home,  to  adjust  the 
various  classes  of  society  to  harmonious  rela- 
tions and  wholesome  industries,  to  cover  the 
whole  existence  of  man  with  the  sanction  of  a 
pure  and  exalted  religion,  this  was  the  enter- 
prise  upon  which  Christianity  went  forth  into 
the  world.  It  endeavored  not  merely  to  bring 
about  social  order  but  to  infuse  something  of 
zest  and  dignity  into  the  occupations  of  life; 
to  make  men  conscious  of  better  things  than 
those  which  in  the  round  of  an  idle,  luxurious 
life  brought  only  weariness  and  despair. 

*'0n  that  hard  Pagan  world  disgust 
And  secret  loathing  fell; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell. 

In  his  cool  hall,  with  haggard  eyes, 

The  Roman  noble  lay: 
He  drove  abroad,  in  furious  guise, 

Along  the  Appian  way: 

He  made  a  feast,  drank  fierce  and  fast, 
And  crown'd  his  hair  with  flowers — 

No  easier  nor  no  quicker  pass'd 
The  impracticable  hours." 

Only  the  word  which  Paul  as  a  messenger 
of  Him  who  came  to  make  all  things  new  car- 
ried to  Antioch,  Ephesus  and  Rome,  a  word  of 
authority,  of  inspiration,  of  hope,  a  word  for 
manliness,  kindliness  and   humanity,  could  so 

79 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

check  the  tendencies  and  remold  the  social  life 
of  the  age  as  to  save  the  world  from  self-dis- 
gust and  self-destruction. 


80 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Religious  Condition  of  the 
Age 

RELIGION  had  in  the  earlier  centuries  of 
Roman  life  no  small  influence  on  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  the  people.  The  serious- 
ness which  characterized  the  senate  was 
determined  by  a  universal  and  sincere  belief 
in  the  presence  and  favor  of  the  gods ;  and  the 
marriage  vow  gained  its  sanctity  from  the 
worship  of  the  Lares  and  Penates.  It  has  oc- 
curred among  most  peoples  that  the  early 
stages  of  religion  have  been  free  from  formal- 
ism and  grossness.  Out  of  the  stress  of 
primitive  life,  or  out  of  the  genius  or  inspira- 
tion of  select  individuals  ideas  and  forms  of 
worship  have  developed  rapidly,  only  to  lose 
their  vitality  in  a  few  centuries.  Zoroaster 
undoubtedly  contributed  enough  of  moral  and 
religious  truth — much  of  which  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  Zend-Avesta — to  reform  the 
Iranian  people;  working  in  noble  fellowship 
with  the  king,  as  in  a  yet  more  favored  land 
Isaiah  wrought  with  Hezekiah,  and  brought 
the  religious    life  of    the  Jewish   nation  to  a 

81 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

comparatively  high  standard.  His  religious 
system  lacked,  however,  the  virility  necessary 
to  withstand  adverse  influences;  in  the  course 
of  centuries  falling  away  from  the  monotheism 
and  morality  which  had  given  it  vitality,  and 
losing  itself  in  dualism  and  image  worship. 
The  people  had  received  gleams  of  light  from 
Ormuzd  but  the  illumination  was  neither  com- 
plete nor  constant. 

Scholars  who  are  conversant  with  the  Ve- 
dic  Hymns  decKre  that  the  standard  of 
thought  concerning  the  nature  of  God  and 
the  spiritual  life  of  man  is  immeasurably 
above  that  which  appeared  among  the  Hindus 
in  later  centuries.  The  religious  fervor  spent 
its  force  and  degeneracy  followed. 

At  Rome  adverse  influences  proved  too  pow- 
erful for  a  religion  which  never  produced  a 
literature  to  compare  in  ethical  qualities  or 
in  spirituality  with  that  of  Persia  or  India, 
and  which  in  the  time  of  the  Empire  had  come 
to  exert  but  small  influence  upon  private 
character  or  public  life.  It  had  fallen  into 
such  decay  that  no  longer  were  men  eager  to 
build  temples,  altars,  and  statues  to  divinities 
to  whom  unquestioning  worship  had  once  been 
rendered.  This  degeneracy  may  have  followed 
the  influx  of  wealth  and  luxury,  or  it  may 
have  been  the  penalty  for  the  despoiling  of 

82 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

Greece.  Undoubtedly  the  Hellenic  type  of 
religion  had  proved  destructive  of  Roman 
simplicity,  in  respect  alike  to  faith  and 
morals.  The  Greeks  had  a  genius  for 
philosophy  and  art  but  not  for  religion  or 
morals.  They  exactly  reversed  the  traits  and 
tendencies  of  the  Hebrew  people,  who  scarcely 
commanded  the  rudiments  of  philosophy  and 
showed  no  inventiveness  in  the  realm  of 
beauty,  but  were  in  all  periods  of  their  na- 
tional life  profoundly  alive  to  the  sublime 
truths  of  religion;  while  the  Greeks  mani- 
fested, even  in  the  palmiest  days  of  intellect- 
ual greatness,  a  strange  lack  of  reverence  and 
seriousness. 

Rome  incorporated  a  civilization  which  was 
in  many  phases  an  advance  upon  her  own  but 
failed  to  exclude  its  fatal  tendencies.  It  was  all 
very  well  to  admire  the  delicate  play  of  fancy, 
so  much  more  free  and  venturesome  than  that 
of  the  more  practical  Latins;  but  it  was  to 
the  last  degree  unwise  to  exchange  a  sober 
habit  of  mind  for  the  frivolousness  which  had 
prevented  the  development  of  manhood 
among  the  Greeks.  If  the  graceful  Grecian 
myths  had  been  built  upon  a  profounder 
sense  of  the  unity  and  grandeur  of  the  uni- 
verse and  of  human  life,  the  Romans  might 
have  adopted  and  rechristened  the  personified 

83 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

forces  of  nature  not  only  without  moral  deter- 
ioration but  with  quickened  and  chastened 
fancy,  a  process  both  beautiful  and  beneficent. 
Their  own  traditions  were  heroic,  not  relig- 
ious or  poetical.  They  might  have  added  re- 
finement to  strength  if  they  could  have 
assimilated  the  legends  which  had  grown  up 
in  Grecian  literature  to  account  for  the  many 
fascinating  phases  of  nature,  and  at  the  same 
time  have  retained  their  sobriety  and  viril- 
ity of  character  and  their  strong  sense  of 
right  and  justice.  They  might  then  have 
turned  with  advantage  to  look  upon  Old  Nep- 
tune as  the  god  of  the  sea,  upon  Ceres  as  the 
goddess  of  the  harvest,  upon  Vulcan  as  the 
god  of  fire,  or  upon  Venus  as  the  goddess  of 
beauty.  They  needed  to  become  more  versa- 
tile and  imaginative  but  they  could  ill  afford 
to  barter  their  stern  virtues  for  all  the  arts 
and  letters,  for  all  the  fancies  and  legends  of 
Greece,  together  with  the  light-mindedness 
and  lax  morality  which  disfigured  the  Pelopo- 
nesian  civilization.  The  matter-of-fact  Latin 
mind  weighed  down  the  airy  Hellenic  fantasies 
with  a  grossness  foreign  to  the  original  con- 
ceptions. The  genius  of  administration  and 
war  which  characterized  the  Romans  was  of 
a  very  different  order  from  that  which  had 
created  and  peopled  Olympus. 

84 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

It  excites  no  wonder  to  learn  that  the  di- 
vinities were  sometimes  publicly  and  bitterly- 
scouted.     It   has   been   said   that   the   whole 
Olympian    family   would    to-day    reside   in   A 
penitentiary.     Every  imaginable  crime  of  lust 
and  rapacity  had,  in  the  degeneracy  and  pros- 
titution of  fancy,  been  attributed  to  the  gods; 
not  even  Jupiter,   the  father  of  all  the  gods 
and  the  noblest,   escaping  the  imputation  of 
jealousy    and    chicanery.     Long    before    the 
Roman   conquest  the  Grecian  code  of  morals 
had  become  corrupt,   and  the  common    stan- 
dards of  life  had  become  subject  to  vanity  and 
passion;  thus  reproducing  the  order  of  things 
exemplified  by  their  deities.  Rome  absorbed  the 
evil    with    the    good,   and    the    decay    of  her 
own    religion    was     swift     and     pronounced. 
First     of    all,     it    lost    its    grip     upon     the 
most  intellectual   classes,   because   they  were 
the   earliest   to   detect   the    baseness   of   mo- 
tive  inseparable   from   current   legends,    and 
were    the     most     fearless     and    independent 
in  action.     Later  on  it  relaxed  its  hold  upon 
the  masses. 

The  day  had  passed  when  Pericles  led  the 
procession  with  songs  and  flowers,  up  to  the 
heights  of  the  Parthenon;  and  when  the  gen- 
erals of  the  republic  brought  their  thank- 
offerings    for   victory    to   Capitoline   Jupiter. 

85 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

The  day  of  unquestioning  reverence  and  faith 
was  irrecoverably  gone. 

Here  and  there  devout  souls,  retaining  their 
mystic  fervor,  came  as  of  yore  to  the  tem- 
ples as  sincere  petitioners.  Some  of  the 
noblest  and  purest,  like  Tacitus  and  Plutarch, 
refused  to  yield  up  their  serious  belief  in  the 
gods  and  renounce  their  respect  for  the  na- 
tional religion;  but  the  indications  are  abun- 
dant and  convincing  that  the  power  custom 
formed  the  larger  factor  in  the  observances  of 
the  time.  The  great  Caesar  made  bold  to  an- 
nounce his  scepticism.  Lucretius  indulged  in 
bitter  and  sarcastic  allusions  to  religion,  while 
Pliny  coolly  assumed  that  the  assured  result  of 
science  was  to  banish  all  gods  from  the  uni- 
verse. Cicero  said  that  hardly  could  an  old 
woman  be  found  who  trembled  at  fables  about 
the  infernal  region.  Juvenal  declared  that 
even  the  boys  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  a  world  of 
spirits.  Cato  wondered  how  one  augur  could 
meet  another  without  laughing  in  his  face. 
The  universal  accompaniment  of  such  scepti- 
cism was  as  usual  a  childish  and  tyranizing 
superstition,  an  absurd  and  grotesque  simul- 
acrum of  faith. 

While  Caesar  presented  himself  before  the 
public  as  a  scoffer  at  religious  beliefs  he  never 
entered  a  carriage  without  uttering  a  magical 

86 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

formula.  Augustus,  who  at  banquets  had 
made  merry  with  the  gods,  dreaded  misfortune 
all  the  day  when  he  had  put  a  shoe  on  the 
wrong  foot.  Pliny,  a  self -proclaimed  atheist, 
wore  talismans.  When  a  bird  of  evil  omen 
sat  on  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  all  the  people 
were  summoned  to  make  solemn  expiation  to 
avert  disaster  from  the  state.  Superstition 
was  almost  universal,  and  everywhere  potent. 
An  earthquake  shook  the  hearts  of  men,  an 
eclipse  shut  out  all  the  light  of  heaven,  a 
flight  of  birds  brought  terror  to  the  stoutest 
souls,  and  a  serpent  crossing  his  path  dis- 
mayed the  boldest  warrior. 

In  the  year  37  of  the  Christian  era  an  earth- 
quake shattered  the  splendid  city  of  Antioch 
to  its  foundation.  It  had  boasted  of  being  the 
Athens  of  the  Orient,  and  justified  its  claim  to 
intellectual  distinction  by  its  galaxy  of  wits, 
philosophers,  rhetoricians,  poets,  and  satirists. 
Yet  under  the  terror  of  that  awful  hour  all  the 
citizens  became  the  easy  prey  of  a  mountebank 
whose  name  has  been  preserved  through  the 
centuries.  He  professed  to  be  able  to  turn 
aside  the  portentous  horrors  by  talismans  of 
the  most  ludicrous  description,  and  the  wisest 
became  the  unworthy  dupes  of  his  magical 
arts.  It  was  a  time  for  necromancers  and 
astrologers  to  reap  their  harvests. 

8T 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

Nevertheless,  something  of  religion  outlived 
both  scepticism  and  superstition,  and  mani- 
fested itself  in  punctillious  and  exacting  ob- 
servances. These  religious  acts  were  not  of 
great  moral  value;  but  some  lingering  of  religi- 
ous sentiment,  some  sense  of  dependence  on 
supermundane  powers,  some  fiickerings  of 
heavenly  light  must  have  sustained  a  system 
which  was  subject  to  open  and  deserved  con- 
tempt. In  a  way,  though  not  the  highest  and 
noblest,  the  state  had  been  founded  on  relig- 
ion, and  even  in  the  degenerate  days  of  the 
Empire  men  could  not  utterly  ignore  the  faith 
of  their  fathers  nor  suppress  their  own  instinc- 
tive aspirations.  Plutarch,  in  that  very  cen- 
tury, dared  to  write:  "Sooner  may  a  city 
exist  without  houses  and  grounds  than  a  state 
without  faith  in  gods.  This  is  the  bond  of 
union  and  the  support  of  all  legislation."  At 
every  important  public  transaction  the  gods 
were  consulted  and  sacred  rites  observed.  No 
senator  at  Rome  under  Augustus  could  take 
his  place  without  going  to  the  altar  of  his  diety 
and  there  offering  libations  and  strewing  in- 
cense; and  every  city  and  village  throughout 
the  provinces  had  special  rites  for  its  protect- 
ing divinity. 

In   domestic    life    the    religious    exactions 
were  no  less  rigorous.    Every  important  event 

88 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

in  the  family  was  celebrated  with  religious 
services.  The  goddess  Lucina  watched  over 
the  birth  of  a  child;  Rumina  attended  its 
nursing;  Nudina  was  invoked  when  on  the 
ninth  day  the  name  was  given;  to  Statina  was 
consecrated  the  day  on  which  the  child  first 
stepped  on  the  ground;  while  Cunina  con- 
stantly averted  the  evil  enchantments  which 
threatened  its  life. 

Rome  was  excessively  punctillious  in  things 
religious,  the  perfection  of  religion  being 
thought  to  consist  in  exactness  of  ritual. 
If  the  substance  was  gone  there  was  no 
lack  of  outward  forms.  On  every  ship  that 
sailed  out  of  the  harbor  at  Ostia  stood  the 
image  of  Neptune,  and  as  it  passed  beyond  his 
vision  the  merchant  prayed  to  Mercury  for 
success  in  all  his  commercial  enterprises.  Be- 
fore the  harvest  a  sacrifice  was  offered  to 
Ceres  for  a  bountiful  crop.  The  ancient  tem- 
ples still  stood  in  their  wonted  magnificence 
and  were  daily  visited  by  multitudes.  Feasts 
and  sacrifices  were  celebrated  with  pomp,  and 
altars  were  the  resort  of  suppliants  for  divine 
favors.  Even  emperors  performed  solemn 
rites  in  behalf  of  the  city's  welfare.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  extent  and  sincerity 
of  disbelief  among  the  intelligent  classes  it 
was  still  necessary  to  support  popular   stand- 

89 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

ing  by  open  adherence  to  the   religion   of  the 
state. 

Then  as  now  women  in  greater  numbers 
than  men  gave  time  to  religious  observances. 
It  may  indeed  have  been  largely  due  to  the 
wives  and  mothers  that  the  customs  of  worship 
were  so  long  retained  in  the  home.  Cicero 
might  ridicule  some  of  the  stories  told  about 
the  gods,  but  he  nevertheless  deemed  it  a 
desirable  thing,  a  thing  to  be  taken  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  that  his  wife  should  cultivate 
piety.  Plautus  gives  an  interesting  portrait 
of  the  ideal  wife.  Among  such  womanly  vir- 
tues as  dignity,  respect  for  parents,  and  obedi- 
ence to  the  husband,  he  does  not  fail  to  name 
reverence  for  the  gods.  What  Paul  found  at 
Athens  he  might  have  discovered  at  Rome  or 
Ephesus.  The  people  made  a  display  of  re- 
ligion. The  paraphernalia  of  worship  was  not 
wanting.  "  The  old  world  was  full  of  gods." 
It  was  said  in  humorous  exaggeration  by  a 
satirical  observer  of  the  age:  "  Our  country 
is  so  peopled  with  dieties  that  it  is  easier  to 
find  a  god  at  Athens  than  a  man."  Life  was 
touched  at  every  point  by  the  forms  and  rites 
of  religion,  and  if  there  had  been  intelligence 
and  genuineness  the  state  would  have  been 
saved  from  the  corruptions  which  were  under- 
mining it;  but  all   the  faiths  which  had   been 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

adopted  by  Rome  with  such  indiscriminate 
haste  and  lavish  hospitality  had  alike  become 
hollow.  They  were  all  void  of  life  and  power. 
They  were  all  equally  impotent.  The  indi- 
vidual and  the  state  were  alike  left  undefended 
against  moral  evil,  and  uninspired  to  the 
noblest  ends  of  life. 

In  the  first   place  they  failed  to  uplift  and 
purify  daily  life.     They  were   external  rather 
than   internal,  formal    rather  than  real,    emo- 
tional rather  than  ethical,  being  utterly  devoid 
of  influence  upon  either  reason  or  conscience. 
They    were   not    constructed  upon  this  basis. 
They  made  no  attempt  to  be  effective  in  the 
realm  of  conduct  and  relationship,  they  made 
no  appeal  whatever  to  the   motives  or  senti- 
ments of  the  worshiper,  they  modified  in  no 
conceivable   degree   his    views    of  life   or   his 
methods    of  securing   pleasure    or   profit.     A 
Roman  came   to  the  altar  with  an  offering  or 
libation  hoping  thereby  to  discharge  his  debt 
to    the   gods,  that   they    might  bear    him    no 
ill  will,  or  that  they  might  prosper  his  enter- 
prise.     He  recognized  a  certain  obligation  to 
the  divinities  as  the  very  word  which  he  used 
for  religion  implied;  but  his  "religion  "  did  not 
bind  him  to  a  Being  august  in   righteousness 
and   stern  in  demands    of  purity.      The   gods 
whom  he   sought  to  placate  were   themselves 

91 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

fickle  and  lustful,  and  were,  by  their  reputed 
character,  the  last  objects  in  the  universe  to 
stimulate  men  to  honesty,  highmindedness, 
and  self-control.  They  had  been  conceived  and 
created,  by  the  unsanctified  fancies  of  men,  and 
were  decidedly  materialistic  and  worldly,  even 
although  they  were  assigned  to  the  mystic 
heights  of  Olympus,  above  the  clouds  of 
heaven. 

The  Greek  found  beauty  in  his  religion  and 
sought  to  cultivate  in  connection  with  temple 
and  image  his  aesthetic  sensibilities,  but  he 
never  dreamed  of  holiness  in  connection  with 
the  Celestial  City  and  the  palace  of  Zeus.  A 
solemn  procession  in  which  the  sacred  robe  of 
Pallas  was  carried  up  the  heights  of  the  Acrop- 
olis and  within  the  gates  of  the  Parthenon 
had  no  imaginable  relation  to  manhood  and 
womanhood.  The  attendants  of  all  ages  and 
both  sexes  pressed  forward  with  oil  and  cake 
for  the  sacrifices,  but  without  the  slightest 
enthusiasm  for  righteousness  or  kindly  ser- 
vice. They  could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  by 
the  majestic  proportions  of  the  temple  which 
crowned  the  summit,  nor  to  delight  in  the 
noble  pediment  which  the  genius  of  Phidias 
had  fitly  adorned,  but  they  neither  saw  nor 
heard  anything  to  enhance  the  solemnity  of 
life,  or  to  restrain  from  frivolity  or  self-indul- 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

gence.  Such  psalms  as  in  the  days  of  Peri- 
cles were  being  sung  in  Jerusalem  were  as  far 
beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  cultivated 
Greek  as  of  the  nomadic  wanderer  in  the  Lyb- 
ian  desert.  It  would  have  been  worth  all  their 
masterpieces  of  art  to  have  listened  but  once 
to  a  choir  of  Levites  chanting: — 

'<  Who  shall  ascend  unto  the  hill  of  the  Lord? 
And  who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place? 
He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart: 
Who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity, 
Nor  sworn  deceitfully," 
or  to  have  found  on  some  scroll  the  outcry  of 
a  penitent  soul: 

*♦  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart; 
try  me  and  know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if 
there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me 
in  the  way  everlasting." 

The  religion  of  the  Greeks  never  produced 
a  hymn  in  praise  of  truth  and  chastity,  nor 
an  inspiration  after  nobleness  and  usefulness. 
Much  less  did  the  plagiarized  Sacred  Songs  of 
the  Romans.  Lacking  the  aesthetic  sense  of 
the  people  they  had  conquered  they  lost  that 
touch  of  grace  and  charm  which  came  to 
Athenians  with  their  artistic  forms.  With 
their  own  degeneracy  they  attributed  all  de- 
grees of  cruelty  licentiousness  to  their  deities 
until  their  religion  was  not  only  uninspiring 

93 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

but  often  positively  corrupting.  More  than 
one  moralist  under  the  Empire  sought  to  divert 
the  people  from  the  dissolute  fancies  engen- 
dered by  current  legends  of  the  gods  of  Rome. 
Seneca  cried  out  in  disgust  and  despair  that: 
"  All  shame  on  account  of  sin  must  be  taken 
from  men  before  they  could  believe  in  such 
divinities." 

As  all  the  imported  religions  failed  to  in- 
spire lives  of  piety,  virtue,  and  gentleness,  so 
they  failed  to  satisfy  the  instinctive  yearnings 
of  men  for  comfort  and  peace  of  mind.  Men 
are  never  so  imbruted  as  to  become  incapable 
of  tenderness  and  aspiration.  Certainly,  out 
of  the  thronging  millions  of  the  Empire  not  a 
few  souls  had  voiceless  longings  for  something 
which  did  not  come  to  them  in  fierce  battle, 
in  successful  intrigue,  in  hours  of  revelry,  or 
even  in  the  temple  services.  Their  deeper 
natures  were  stirred  but  no  fountain  of  com- 
fort was  known  to  them.  If  some  eager  mis- 
sionary from  Jerusalem,  some  far  wandering 
minstrel  of  Judah,  had  only  come  to  Athens 
with  a  message  and  a  song  then  Rome  might 
have  echoed  with  hymns  of  gladness,  and 
hearts  that  were  over-burdened  and  weary 
might  have  exclaimed,  "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes 
unto  the  hills,  from  whence  cometh  my  help. 
My  help  cometh  from   the  Lord  which  made 

94 


The  Eeligious  Condition  of  the  Age 

heaven  and  earth.  He  will  not  suffer  my  foot 
to  be  moved;  he  that  keepeth  me  will  not 
slumber."  It  is  pitiful  to  see  how  they  lived 
on  in  empty  pleasure  or  dumb  despair,  never 
finding  what  they  most  needed.  Plato,  indeed, 
protests  against  Atheism  as  an  impossibility, 
because  man  cannot  banish  from  his  heart, 
however  brave  his  words  of  denial,  an  in- 
stinctive belief  in  the  gods.  But  in  the  gods 
of  the  Grecian  and  Roman  world,  there  was 
little  to  comfort  one  who  blindly  reached  forth 
his  hands  toward  the  host  of  Olympus!  There 
came  to  greet  him  no  assurances  of  a  personal 
creator  and  friend,  no  pledges  of  watch-care 
and  fellowship,  no  promises  of  blessedness 
either  here  -or  hereafter.  Of  this  world  of 
beauty  and  sunshine,  of  passion  and  pleasure,  it 
behooved  him  to  make  the  most,  for  beyond  it 
lay  the  regions  of  Hades,  an  underworld,  dark, 
mysterious,  uncanny,  where  incorporal  shades 
wandered  aimlessly  and  hopelessly.  Against 
the  weariness,  disappointment,  shame  and 
disgust  of  life  Pagan  religion  set  absolutely 
nothing  of  cheer  or  comfort. 

As  these  religions  of  Rome  failed  to  comfort 
the  heart  so  they  failed  lamentably  to  satisfy 
the  mind.  While  there  had  been  a  decadence 
of  religious  fervor  and  a  loss  of  ethical  impulse 
there   had  been  a    gain  of  intelligence.     The 

95 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

habit  of  investigation  and  of  philosophical 
speculation  had  become  more  general  and  con- 
trolling. Consequently,  the  myths  and  fables 
which  had  satisfied  the  minds  of  an  earlier  and 
cruder  age  and  even  furnished  something  of  in- 
spiration to  character,  fell  short  of  the  de- 
mands made  by  a  less  imaginative  but  more 
reflective  people.  Instead  of  becoming  more 
simple  the  legends  of  the  gods  became  more  com- 
plex and  diversified  until  they  broke  down  by 
the  weight  of  their  own  accretions.  At  last 
they  were  too  gross  and  too  confiicting  to  hold 
even  the  most  credulous.  There  was,  besides, 
an  unmistakable  drift  toward  monotheism,  due 
not  only  to  intellectual  progress,  but  also  to 
the  necessities  of  a  moral  and  religious  feeling 
which  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  spite  of  the 
corruption  of  the  time.  Jupiter  still  mingled 
in  human  affairs  and  displayed  pitiable  weak- 
nesses; and  yet  he,  as  the  father  of  gods  and 
men,  kept  on  flashing  the  lightning  from  the 
clouds  and  governing  by  his  sovereign  will.  The 
thought  of  supremacy  and  unity  probably 
gained  more  in  real  than  apparent  influence  on 
the  thought  of  the  age.  It  certainly  acted 
powerfully  on  the  minds  of  the  thinkers  who 
were  pioneers  for  the  people  in  realms  of  phi- 
losophy. The  whole  fabric  of  heathen  religion, 
with  its  myths,  auguries,  and  libations,   trem- 

96 


The  Religious  Condition  of  the  Age 

bled  before  the  scrutiny  to  which  at  last  it  was 
subjected.  Once  brought  into  the  light  of 
rational  enquiry  its  puerilities,  absurdities,  and 
inconsistencies  were  manifest.  Many  a  legend 
was  puncturedjbjQiisJorical,  study,  and  many  a 
childish  story  discredited  by  a  closer  acquaint- 
ance with  the  forces  and  laws  of  the  physical 
world.  Even  the  wisest  did  not  hit  upon  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  life,  but  they  discovered  enough 
to  make  them  sceptical  concerning  the  ancient 
faith,  and  irreverent  toward  the  ancient  gods. 

In  their  relation  to  Christianity  the  religious 
experiences  of  the  first  century  were  signifi- 
cant in  a  twofold  way. 

First,  they  make  pathetic  and  appalling  ex- 
hibition of  men's  need  of  a  religion  which  should 
hold  within  it  enough  truth  to  meetevery  intel- 
lectual demand,  enough  of  tenderness  and 
sympathy  to  satisfy  the  deepest  yearnings  of 
the  human  heart,  and  enough  of  moral  excel- 
lence to  uplift  and  purify  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual, the  family,  and  the  state.  Men  existed 
for  naught  and  labored  to  weariness  with  no 
profit  because  they  were  given  no  ideals  of 
manhood,  because  no  appeals  were  made  to 
their  better  nature.  There  was  a  crying  need 
of  a  religion  which  could  address  itself  to  the 
conscience;  which  could   awaken   a  conscious- 

97 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

ness  of  the  divinity  above  and  within  men; 
which  could  present  objects  and  aims  large 
enough  and  noble  enough  to  make  life  worth 
living;  and  stigmatize  with  infamy  the  cruel- 
ties, frivolities,  and  lustful  abominations  which 
characterized  the  society  of  the  period. 

There  was  not  only  a  conscious  need  but  also 
an  unconscious  readiness  for  Christianity. 
The  preparation  was  not  of  the  positive  sort 
furnished  in  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews, 
by  their  sublime  portraiture  of  a  just  and 
merciful  God,  by  their  treasured  promises  of 
deliverance  and  ever  deepening  desire  for  the 
coming  of  the  Lord's  Anointed.  The  prepar- 
edness came  from  the  exhaustion  of  all  human 
resources  and  the  hopeless  discrediting  of  the 
national  divinities,  set  against  the  irrepres- 
sible hopes  and  yearnings  of  people  who  could 
not  quite  suppress  the  aspirations  of  heaven- 
made  souls. 

Though  Rome  gave  such  cordial  welcome  to 
all  national  divinities  and  acquiesced  in  sacred 
rites  of  every  imaginable  form,  still  she  did 
not  find  the  religion  for  which  she  waited  with 
conscious  and  unconscious  need ;  and  so  the 
processes  of  scepticism  and  neglect  went 
steadily  on.  A  state  of  chaos  unparalleled  in 
history  took  the  place  of  the  old  national  re- 
ligion out  of  which  in  due  time  a  new  world 

98 


The  Keligious  Condition  of  the  Age 

was  created.  The  one  world-religion  of  all 
history  made  its  appeal  to  that  which 
is  deepest  and  most  ineradicable  in  man; 
in  order  that  where  all  other  religions 
had  hopelessly  failed  it  might  find  an 
open  field  for  beneficent  and  triumphant 
work.  What  the  unordained  forerunners 
of  the  Apostle  brought  to  Rome  in  such 
stories  as  travellers  and  merchants  could  tell 
about  the  Man  of  Galilee,  Paul  finally  pro- 
claimed by  written  and  spoken  word.  Thus 
was  introduced  into  the  Capital  of  the  world  a 
religion  which  was  fitted  to  supply  the  needs 
of  the  world  and  at  last  to  accomplish  its  re- 
generation; a  religion  in  which  should  be 
manifest  more  and  more  the  wisdom  and  power 
of  God;  a  religion  which  should  alike  answer 
man's  longing  for  a  life  of  substantial  worth 
and  dignity  and  for  assurance  concerning  a 
yet  nobler  career  beyond  the  tomb ;  a  religion 
which  was  to  meet  with  rebuffs,  be  for  a  time 
feared  and  hated  as  arrogant  and  exclusive, 
but  which  nevertheless  was  to  prevail  against 
misunderstanding  and  designing  hostility  until 
in  the  end  it  should  be  crowned  by  a  Roman 
Emperor  as  the  religion  of  the  State, 


99 


chapter  vi. 

The  Moral  Standards  of  the 
Period 

T^HE  difficulties  which  confronted  Christ- 
^  ianity  in  the  first  century  were  radically 
different  from  those  encountered  by  a  founder 
of  the  Mosaic  system.  Out  of  their  centuries 
of  degradation  under  the  Pharaohs  a  nation 
of  bondmen  brought  dullness  of  mind  and  cor- 
ruption of  morals,  but  there  was  no  attempt 
to  mold  them  at  once  to  the  divine  pattern  of 
thought  and  life.  The  legislation  upon  which 
was  to  be  built  a  new  order  of  social  and  relig- 
ious life  was  merely  kept  in  advance  of  actual 
attainment,  and  had  often  to  accommodate 
itself  to  hopeless  weaknesses  and  perversions. 
Christianity  was  much  more  than  a  code  of 
laws.  Its  high  office  was  not  to  legislate,  but 
to  instruct  and  inspire.  Its  mission  was  to 
give  to  the  world  a  standard  of  thought  and 
motive  which  could  never  be  surpassed  or  out- 
grown. The  amazing  thing,  therefore,  is  that 
it  was  able  to  gain  a  footing  in  so  corrupt  an 
age  and  maintain  its  influence  in  the  face  of 

100 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

such  base  notions  and  debasing  customs  as 
those  which  obtained  throughout  the  Roman 
Empire. 

It  was  impossible  to  accomplish  more  during 
the  first  century  than  to  organize  scattered 
churches,  made  up  of  crude  and  inconsistent 
Christians,  and  to  proclaim  principles  which 
were  left  to  win  their  way  to  favor  by  their  in- 
herent  excellence.  The  glory  of  the  "Apos- 
tolic Age "  has  dazzled  the  modern 
church  until  men  look  back  despairing- 
ly to  it  as  to  a  golden  period  for 
the  return  of  which  we  must  hope  in 
vain.  True  it  is  that  the  personal  devotion  of 
Paul  and  the  spirituality  of  John  are  still  un- 
surpassed, and  beyond  question  the  heroism  of 
Christian  martyrs,  even  in  the  earliest  centu- 
ries, puts  to  shame  the  self-considerateness  and 
cowardice  which  in  some  degree  characterize 
many  modern  disciples;  yet  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  cause  of  righteousness  was 
in  desperate  straits  during  the  time  of  Saint 
Paul  and  that  by  only  the  smallest  margin  it 
won  its  way  against  the  persistent  forces  of 
evil  which  had  held  sway  for  generations. 

The  doctrines  of  the  Nazarene  were  too 
novel  and  too  advanced  for  the  majority  of 
the  Emperor's  subjects  fully  to  comprehend 
them  at  first,  much  less  to  accept  and  exem- 

101 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

plify  them.  The  crudest  notions  of  life  and 
the  basest  customs  prevailed,  and  even  within 
the  covenant  of  the  church  made  themselves 
shamefully  manifest.  The  apostolic  letters 
are  the  unwitting  memorials  of  a  condition  of 
things  which  no  longer  survives  save  in  start- 
ling exceptions  to  the  rule  of  decency  and 
correctness  of  living.  Then  it  was  not  an  un- 
heard of  thing  for  an  apostle  to  reprove  a 
church  for  drunkenness  and  unseemly  strife  at 
the  holy  communion,  or  to  warn  against  such 
transgressions  as  blasphemy,  perjury  and  adul- 
tery. That  men  and  women,  who  had  been 
moved  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  un- 
dertake lives  of  godliness,  should  be  guilty  of 
such  wide  departure  from  the  standards  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  made  possible  only 
by  long  established  habit,  and  by  the  absence 
of  public  sentiment  against  such  enormities. 

It  is  happily  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for 
the  average  Christian  to  reproduce  even  in 
imaginatien  the  order  of  moral  life  which  char- 
acterized the  Roman  Empire.  Nor  need  it  find 
place  even  in  our  fancy  save  in  its  general 
features  and  for  the  sake  of  an  intelligent  ap- 
preciation of  the  task  successfully  undertaken 
by  our  religion.  Christianity  was  indeed  as  a 
light  shining  in  a  dark  place.  As  a  candle  in 
a  deep,  dark  mine,   as  a  diamond  in   a  muck 

102 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

heap,  as  a  lily  among  thorns,  so  was  the  sweet 
Gospel  of  Christ  in  the  great  world  of  the 
Caesars ;  a  message  of  faith,  hope,  and  love,  of 
forgiveness,  aspiration,  and  holy  endeavor 
among  men  of  inherited  and  acquired  vicious- 
ness.  Farrar  has  declared  that  "the  epoch 
which  witnessed  the  early  growth  of  Christ- 
ianity was  an  epoch  of  which  the  horror  and 
degradation  have  rarely  been  equalled  and 
never  exceeded  in  the  annals  of  mankind."  It 
was  a  time  of  sad  decadence  for  a  civilization 
which  had  manifested  earlier  glories  of  aspira- 
tion and  achievement,  and  which  had  created 
two  splendid  types  of  national  development, 
but  which  had  spent  its  vital  forces  and  dem- 
onstrated its  fatal  weakness. 

Uhlhorn  holds  it  incontrovertible  that  "the 
heathen  world  was  ethically  as  well  as  relig- 
iously at  the  point  of  dissolution,"  that  "it 
had  become  as  bankrupt  in  morals  as  in  faith, 
with  no  power  at  hand  from  which  a  restora- 
tion could  proceed."  Seneca  said  of  his  own 
times,  ' '  All  things  are  full  of  iniquity  and  vice, 
more  crimes  are  committed  than  can  be  rem- 
edied by  force.  A  monstrous  contest  of  wick- 
edness is  carried  on.  Daily  the  lust  of  sin  in- 
creases, daily  the  sense  of  shame  diminishes." 
Juvenal,  Tacitus  and  Pliny  are  not  less  severe 
in  characterizing  the  immoral  aspects  of  the 

103 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

age.  Petronius  cries  out  in  despair,  "Rome 
is  like  a  field  outside  of  a  plague-stricken  city, 
in  which  you  can  see  nothing  but  carcasses  and 
the  crows  which  feed  upon  them." 

There  were  no  redeeming  features,  no  hope- 
ful aspects,  among  any  class,  from  the  meanest 
slave  to  the  monarch  on  the  throne.  There 
was  nothing  to  inspire  hope  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  human  society,  or  respect  for  life 
itself.  Of  the  four  weaklings  who  assumed  the 
reins  of  government  after  the  death  of  Augus- 
tus, and  who  thus  in  turn  became  the  most 
influential  men  in  society,  not  a  commendatory 
word  has  ever  been  spoken.  Tiberius  was  a 
sanguinary  tyrant  who  came  to  weariness  of 
life  and  self-detestation  by  reason  of  senseless 
excesses;  Gains  was  an  unrestrained  lunatic; 
Claudius  was  an  "uxorious  imbecile,"  and 
Nero  a  conceited  monster  and  heartless  buf- 
foon— of  whom  a  historian  has  written  that 
he  represented  ' '  the  omnipotence  of  evil  in  the 
apotheosis  of  self."  The  habitual  intrigue, 
the  acts  of  murder,  the  indulgence  of  out- 
rageous passion  which  made  themselves  at  home 
in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars,  also  domes ti- 
icated  themselves  among  the  people.  For 
once  wickedness  was  suffered  to  run  riot  that 
a  picture  of  its  grotesque  horrors  and  revolt- 
ing ugliness  might  be  painted  for  all  time,  to 

104: 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

show  ''the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin  "and 
the  absolute  demand  for  the  redemptive  work 
of  a  Power  that  can  make  for  righteousness. 
When  cruelty,  lust  and  treachery  have  done 
their  worst  there  remains  nothing  of  hope, — 
save  in  a  moral  re-birth  of  the  world. 

To  analyze  the  ethical  characteristics  and 
tendencies  of  this  age  is  to  make  profound 
study  of  a  ruinous  experiment,  which  mani- 
fested itself  in  an  attempt  to  build  a  great 
civilization  upon  a  basis    of  unsound  morals. 

To  begin  with,  there  was  everywhere  a  fatal 
lack  of  seriousness.  Strenuousness  of  life  was 
unknown.  The  existence  of  men  and  women 
was  aimless  and  valueless.  Life  through- 
out the  Empire  was  of  the  type  which  depressed 
the  great  Apostle  when  he  wandered  about  the 
streets  of  the  most  cultivated  city  of  the  an- 
cient world,  and  which  is  parenthetically 
described  in  the  words :  ' '  Now  all  of  the 
Athenians  and  the  strangers  sojourning  there 
had  leisure  for  nothing  else  than  either  to  tell 
or  to  hear  some  new  thing. "  The  most  inno- 
cent of  all  their  occupations,  and  the  one  which 
commanded  their  most  serious  attention,  was 
the  rehearsal  of  the  latest  bit  of  gossip.  In 
contrast  with  the  gravity  of  the  old  Roman 
was  the  trick  of  levity  which  had  been  caught 
from  light-minded  Greeks.     Their  art  and  phi- 

105 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

losophy  were  meritorious  but  utterly  unpro- 
ductive of  earnest  living.  They  could  not 
make  out  the  secret  of  such  a  man  as  Paul.  He 
was  indeed  a  curiosity  at  the  capital  of  Achaia. 
They  looked  into  his  deeply  marked  face, 
suffused  with  sad  reflections  as  he  wandered 
under  the  palms,  or  made  his  way  among  the 
chattering  throngs  of  the  market  place. 
When  he  spoke  it  was  with  the  speech  of  a 
man  charged  with  a  portentous  message,  but 
they  had  only  listless  wonder  as  to  what  this 
"babbler"  would  say,  for  he  seemed,  indeed, 
to  be  a  ** setter  forth  of  strange  gods." 

There  was  no  sense  of  reality  in  such  living. 
It  was  all  a  mockery  and  pretense,  and  men 
scarcely  took  themselves  seriously.  When 
Augustus,  who  gives  his  name  to  this  brilliant 
period,  came  to  his  death  bed  he  asked  a  friend 
' '  whether  he  had  fitly  gone  through  the  play 
of  life," — as  if  all  the  world  were  in  very  truth 
a  stage  and  all  the  men  and  women  merely 
players  who  took  the  parts  assigned  them,  and 
who  at  the  close  begged  the  applause  due  to 
those  who  had  finished  their  roles  to  the  satis- 
faction of  idle  spectators.  Not  even  into  lit- 
erature and  oratory  could  anything  of  sin- 
cerity and  down-rightness  be  put  by  men 
whose  temper  had  been  cast  in  the  mold  of 
Roman    civilization.      Rhetoric    and    oratory 

106 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

were  the  fashion  of  the  hour,  and  they  were 
studied  not  for  the  sake  of  gaining  power  to 
express  noble  thoughts  and  enforcing  appeals 
for  justice,  but  merely  for  the  employment  of 
high  sounding  words  and  the  use  of  graceful 
gesture.  In  all  the  art  of  the  day  there  was 
nothing  but  studied  affectation  and  elaborate 
sophistry. 

The  cause  of  such  universal  hollowness  and 
frivolity  is  not  far  to  seek.  There  was  an 
utter  lack  of  religious  sanction  for  human  life. 
Their  gods  were  as  idle  and  purposeless  as  the 
people  themselves.  There  came  from  the 
heights  of  Olympus  no  illumination  and  no  voice 
of  stern  command;  and  hence  even  the  religious 
philosophy  of  the  time  was  either  powerless  or 
perverting.  Stoicism  had  much  to  say  about 
deity  but  without  the  faintest  hint  of  person- 
ality. It  spoke  of  the  ' '  Reason  "  of  the  uni- 
verse and  of  an  *  Organizer, "  but  this  shad- 
owy divinity  was  identified  with  law  and  sub- 
stance, and  sometimes  even  with  the  soul, 
which  being  in  some  sense  corporeal  was  at 
death  to  be  re-absorbed  into  its  Creator.  Such 
a  philosophy  can  only  with  the  utmost  stretch  of 
courtesy  be  called  "  religion,"  for  it  touches 
very  lightly  the  spirit  of  man  and  imparts  no  im- 
pulse to  duty  or  or  to  manful  service.  Epicur- 
ianism   was   yet  further  from  inspiration   to 

107 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

nobleness.  Atheistic  and  materialistic,  the 
followers  of  this  easy  going  philosophy  scoffed 
at  the  notions  which  hinted  of  a  Creator,  a 
moral  government,  or  a  life  for  man  beyond 
the  grave.  They  looked  upon  soul  as  like  the 
body,  save  that  it  may  have  been  made  of 
finer  atoms,  and  they  bMieved  that  it  would 
be  dissolved  when  the  visible  part  fell  into  de- 
cay. Even  its  instinctive  cries  were  drowned 
in  laughter  as  the  cup  went  round  and  boon 
companions  took  up  the  refrain :  ' '  Let  us 
eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  die." 

After  all,  man  cannot  live  without  some  ab- 
sorbing aim,  and  failing  one  that  is  normal 
and  worthy  he  will  turn  to  what  may  prove 
ignoble  and  worthless.  It  is,  therefore,  not 
surprising  that,  living  for  luxury  and  passion, 
men  so  far  perverted  the  chief  end  of  existence 
as  to  devote  thought  and  energy  to  the  pamper- 
ing of  the  body.  They  not  only  became  selfish 
and  self  indulgent,  but  inventive  and  enterpris- 
ing in  providing  new  forms  of  pleasure,  and  in 
stimulating  passion.  The  Stoic  philosophy  was 
nominally  but  not  vigorously  and  effectively 
opposed  to  such  devotion  to  sensuality.  Its 
favorite  maxim  read,  "Do  nothing  in  excess," 
but  it  was  never  enforced  with  moral  earnest- 
ness, and  consequently  offered  no  resistance  to 
the  tide  of  evil  which  swept  over  the  nation. 

108 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

Stoical  apathy  forbade  deep-seated  concern 
even  for  things  which  concerned  the  high- 
est welfare.  It  made  too  much  of  the  law 
of  self-preservation,  and  of  equanimity  of 
mind.  When  philosophers  of  this  school  de- 
clared that  "the  essential  thing  is  to  live 
according  to  nature"  they  condemned  ex- 
cesses of  all  kinds,  and  without  doubt  many 
applauded  their  easy-going  theory  of  life.  The 
precepts  of  Seneca  are  admirable :  ' '  Pray  and 
live  as  if  the  eye  of  God  were  upon  you. "  ' '  Live 
every  day  as  if  it  were  your  last."  "Live  for 
another  as  you  would  live  for  yourself."  "Na- 
ture bids  me  assist  meri;  wherever,  therefore, 
there  is  a  man  there  is  room  for  doing  good." 
But  the  tenor  of  Stoicism  was  against  intens- 
ity of  feeling  and  discouraged  either  indigna- 
tion against  corruption  or  zeal  for  the  regen- 
eration of  society. 

Luxury  was  possible  only  to  a  small  minor- 
ity of  the  people.  Half  of  the  population  of 
Rome  in  the  first  century  were  under  the  bonds 
of  slavery  while  the  great  mass  of  free-born  in- 
habitants were  only  in  a  lesser  degree  abject, 
being  beggars,  idlers,  parasites,  the  objects  of 
contempt  and  the  victims  of  cruelty,  without 
hope  or  aspiration  above  an  existence  of  squal- 
or, misery  and  vice.  Above  these  hapless  crea- 
tures, so  far  as  outward  and  wordly  conditions 

109 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

are  concerned,  was  an  ever  diminishing  number 
of  wealthy  and  noble  citizens.  In  external 
things  the  upper  class  were  in  striking  con- 
trasts with  the  frightful  want  and  groveling 
habits  at  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale, 
but  in  respect  to  virtue  and  temperance 
they  offered  few  points  of  superiority.  They 
suffered  from  ennui  and  self-disgust;  and  al- 
though hopelessly  weary  of  such  a  profitless 
existence  they  only  plunged  more  deeply 
into  sensuality  or  devised  new  forms  of  so- 
called  pleasure.  They  had  no  higher  ideal  of 
enjoyment,  no  other  resources  of  delight.  An- 
imalism in  more  or  less  refined  forms  ruled  the 
day.  Gastronomy  took  rank  as  a  science,  and 
gluttony  assumed  incredible  proportions.  Del- 
icacies were  imported  from  every  quarter  of 
the  known  world,  and  banquets,  which  lasted 
the  night  through,  became  the  talk  of  the 
time. 

The  public  baths  at  Rome,  the  impressive 
ruins  of  which  have  outlived  the  centuries,  came 
to  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  social  life.  They 
were  not  hygenic  but  delicately  sensual.  They 
were  constructed  and  frequented  for  enervat- 
ing luxury,  vapid  amusement,  profitless  gos- 
sip. Having  no  serious  demands  upon  their 
time  the  wealthy  thought  it  worth  their  while 
to  build  these  structures  of  public  resort  of 

110 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

splendid  proportions,  and  to  decorate  them 
with  imported  marbles  and  gorgeous  mosaics, 
and  furnish  them  with  every  conceivable  device 
for  entertainment.  Besides  making  provision 
for  air  and  water  baths  of  many  varieties,  they 
added  gymnasia,  lecture  halls  for  poets  and 
rhetoricians,  libraries,  walks,  fountains,  and 
lounging  rooms.  These  new  forms  of  asthetic 
life  which  were  introduced  by  Agrippa  were 
worthily  developed  by  Nero  and  his  successors 
until  they  became  the  most  popular  institu- 
tions for  the  leisure  class  who  were  over- 
ladened  with  empty  and  purposeless  hours. 

Devotion  to  luxury  was  attended  with  an  in- 
ordinate love  of  display.  The  pride  of  life 
took  the  direction  of  rivalry  in  the  exhibition 
of  wealth  until  even  philosophers  were 
caught  by  the  craze  for  meaningless  and 
useless  show  of  expenditure.  In  order 
to  indulge  this  passion  for  display  it  was 
necessary,  of  course,  to  secure  money,  and 
hence  came  avarice  and  rapacity.  Men  were 
bold  and  unscrupulous  when  that  served  their 
purpose,  and  obsequious  and  sycophantic  when 
servility  promised  more  than  insolence.  War 
for  plunder  and  rapine  attracted  many,  while 
dishonest  dealing  and  violence  at  home  scarcely 
excited  comment.  At  the  same  time  every  man 
of   influence   and   affluence   was   attended   by 

111 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

suitors  and  schemers  whose  self-debasement 
had  bottomless  depths.  By  the  most  con- 
temptible means  gigantic  fortunes  were  ac- 
cumulated. Even  Seneca,  whose  words  of 
wisdom  have  been  thought  to  suggest  some 
acquaintance  with  the  teachings  of  the  Apostle 
Paul,  took  advantage  of  the  favor  of  his  pupil 
and  master,  the  Emperor  Nero,  to  amass  dur- 
ing four  years  of  unique  prosperity,  no  less  a 
property  than  would  be  represented  by  fifteen 
million  dollars.  Having  possessed  himself  of 
this  immense  fortune  he  proceeded,  moralist 
and  philosopher  although  he  was,  first  to  build 
his  house  and  then  to  furnish  it  with  objects 
of  art  of  the  most  costly  description. 

The  suggestion  of  Goethe  is  interesting  and 
well  sustained,  that  the  Romans  never  went  be- 
yond the  condition  of  parvenus^  their  luxury 
being  nothing  but  < '  tasteless  extravagance 
and  vulgar  ostentation."  Even  their  archi- 
tecture departed  from  the  severe  Grecian  idea 
of  beauty  and  contented  itself  with  size  and 
ornament,  as  appears  in  the  Colosseum,  Had- 
rian's Villa,  and  the  Baths  of  Caracalla.  They 
delighted  in  the  bigness  of  their  structures 
and  in  decorations  of  gold,  silver  and  precious 
stones.  In  the  appointments  of  private  houses 
the  spirit  of  rivalry  drove  each  new  emperor 
or   affluent   prince   to   further   excess  of   ex- 

112 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

penditure.  For  a  while  the  palace  of  LucuUus 
was  accounted  the  finest  in  Rome,  but  in  a  few 
years  it  was  surpassed  by  hundreds  of  mansions 
which  vied  with  each  other  in  size  and  splendor. 
The  process  of  enlargement  and  enrichment 
went  on  until  the  summit  of  extravagance  was 
reached  in  the  Golden  House  of  Nero,  with  its 
decorations  of  incomparable  magnificence,  and 
its  beautiful  setting  of  parks,  woods,  pools 
and  fountains.  The  colonades  of  the  house 
itself  were  a  Roman  mile  in  length.  Within 
were  masterpieces  of  Greek  art;  while  beneath 
a  roof  which  rested  on  enormous  columns  were 
walls  which  glistened  with  gold  and  pearls. 
Not  far  below  it  in  magnificence  was  the 
palace  of  Domitian  which  hinted  of  the  magic 
touch  which  belongs  to  tales  of  fancy. 
Such  lavish  expenditure  was  not  confined  to 
emperors,  nor  to  the  capital,  for  it  covered 
with  parks  and  villas,  the  Campania,  the 
Sabine  Hills,  even  the  lake  shores  of  the  north. 
In  dress  and  personal  adornment  the  same 
passion  for  display  ran  to  extremes.  Pliny 
tells  of  a  Roman  lady  arrayed  for  a  betrothal 
feast,  itself  a  hollow  mockery,  in  a  gown 
covered  with  pearls  and  emeralds,  at  a 
cost  which  would  have  fed  and  clothed  every 
hungry  and  naked  person  in  the  populous  city. 
Display  became  the  talisman  of  success.    Ju- 

113 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

venal  declared  that  not  even  a  Cicero  could 
earn  two  pounds  at  the  bar  unless  he  wore  a 
conspicuous  gold  ring;  and  that  to  succeed  a 
man  must  be  often  seen  borne  through  the 
crowded  streets  on  a  litter  and  making  sump- 
tuous purchases  of  rich  vases  and  beautiful 
slaves;  that  he  must  also  wear  brilliant  robes 
and  flashing  jewels,  for  only  then  could  he 
demand  fabulous  prices  for  his  services  as  a 
pleader. 

This  parade  of  riches  continued  to  the  tragic 
end,  and  literally  attended  a  man  to  his  tomb, 
leaving  him  only  when  he  had  visibly  left  the 
earth.  Even  at  death  there  was  an  exhibition 
of  ornaments  belonging  to  the  deceased,  a  pro- 
cession of  hired  mourners,  mutes  who  with 
dishevelled  hair  made  a  show  of  voiceless  grief, 
beating  their  breasts  in  mockery  of  a  sorrow 
which  no  one  felt.  Criers  went  about  the 
streets  to  announce  the  death  and  the  hour  of 
the  funeral.  The  procession  passed  through 
the  most  crowded  quarters  of  the  city  and 
made  itself  noisy  with  varied  demonstrations 
of  simulated  woe.  If  the  deceased  had  been 
prominent  in  public  affairs  the  cortege  moved 
on  to  the  Forum  for  the  funeral  oration,  which 
fulsomely  celebrated  not  only  his  own  honors 
and  glories  but  also  those  of  his  ancestors. 
The  mourning  train  then   passed  without  the 

114 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

city  walls  and  the  grotesque  ceremonies  were 
concluded  at  a  funeral  pyre,  where  all  the 
emblems  of  a  vain  show  were  consumed  and 
the  body  reduced  to  the  ashes  which  alone 
remained  to  typify  the  reality  of  a  life  so 
vainly  passed  and  so  lightly  mourned. 

With  this  morbid  devotion  to  pleasure  went 
an  equally  abnormal  lack  of  humanity.  While 
absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  immediate  happiness 
men  became  not  only  indifferent  to  the  misery 
of  others  but  even  found  delight  in  their  out- 
cries of  terror  and  pain.  The  gigantic  system 
of  slavery  with  which  the  state  burdened  itself 
brought  with  it  in  the  acutest  form  a  sense  of 
the  embarrassment  of  riches.  Millions  of 
slaves,  without  citizenship  or  manhood,  with, 
out  family  or  social  ties,  without  self  respect 
or  self  restraint,  were  a  constant  source  of 
apprehension.  Desperate  deeds  were  always 
a  possibility  and  an  insurrection  which  would 
have  arrayed  the  majority — wronged,  furious, 
irresponsible — against  property  and  life,  was  a 
ceaseless  dread.  Yet  the  utter  lack  of  intelli- 
gent sympathy  and  humane  consideration  sus- 
tained in  its  worst  form  an  institution  mon- 
strous in  its  denial  of  every  human  right  and  in 
the  infliction  of  hopeless  misery. 

Callous  to  the  anguish  and  despair  of  fellow 
creatures,  whom  the  precepts  of  philosophers 

115 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

taught  them  to  treat  as  chattels,  Romans  of 
the  lordly  class  corrupted  with  public  exhibition 
of  torture  and  bloodshed  not  themselves  only, 
but  the  populace  whom  they  despised.  Every 
fantastic  device  was  resorted  to  for  the 
excitement  of  jaded  minds,  every  form  of 
fierce  and  bloody  contest  was  adopted  to 
furnish  entertainment  for  blas6  spectators, 
men,  women,  and  children.  Such  hardness 
of  heart,  such  dullness  of  sensibility,  al- 
most passes  belief,  and  yet  contemporary 
literature  abounds  in  tales  which  bring  to 
modern  minds  unspeakable  horror.  The  peo- 
ple not  only  learned  to  endure  the  sight  of 
blood;  they  craved  it.  The  menacing  cry  of 
the  rabble  which  made  Augustus  and  Trajan 
tremble  on  the  throne  of  so  vast  an  empire 
was,  "  Bread  and  Games!  "  Invention  and  re- 
sources were  put  to  the  stretch  to  meet  this 
wolfish  demand  for  blood  It  is  recorded  that 
a  single  emperor  brought  to  Rome  more  than 
three  thousand  wild  beasts,  and  forced  into  the 
amphitheatre  no  fewer  than  eight  thousand 
gladiators.  When  the  monotony  of  ordinary 
scenes  of  violence  made  them  weary,  all  possi- 
ble changes  having  been  rung  on  the  fight  of 
criminals  for  life  and  gladiators  for  fame  and 
money,  of  human  beings  with  lions  and  tigers, 
and  of  stranger  beasts  with  each  other,  they 

116 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

turned  to  the  ludicrous.  A  Roman  mob  must 
be  amused  at  any  cost  of  treasure  or  decency. 
Fierce,  discordant  cries  passed  into  the  wild 
laughter  of  buffoonery  as  men  who  were  blind- 
folded rushed  upon  each  other  with  the  clumsy 
fury  of  desperation,  followed  by  deformed  and 
dwarfed  creatures  whose  misshapen  misery  en- 
hanced its  tasteless  pleasure.  What  mercy 
could  live  in  such  an  atmosphere  I  What  sen- 
sibilities could  survive  such  sights  and  sounds! 
The  entire  populace  was  involved  in  the  pas- 
sion for  bloodshed,  the  noblest  and  wisest 
uttering  scarcely  a  word  of  protest,  even 
Cicero  venturing  no  further  than  to  say: 
' '  Some  consider  the  games  cruel,  and  possibly 
they  are  as  now  conducted!  " 

Cruelty  and  lust  have  always  been  found  in 
ill-omened  conjunction,  though  it  would  be 
difficult  to  give  a  philosophical  reason  for  their 
union.  The  men  who  lost  the  sense  of  pity 
gained  correspondingly  in  the  basest  passions, 
so  that  the  evils  which  dismayed  observers  of 
that  age  threatened  the  overthrow  of  the  whole 
social  structure.  Lucian  wrote  with  bitter 
sarcasm :  "  If  any  one  loves  wealth  and  power, 
if  any  one  has  wholly  surrendered  himself  to 
pleasures,  full  tables,  carousals  and  lewdness, 
let  him  go  to  Rome."  The  historian  Levy  de- 
clared, ' '  Rome  has  become  great  by  her  vir- 

117 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

tues  fill  now,  when  we  can  neither  bear  our 
vices  nor  their  remedies."  It  was  a  shameless, 
debauched  age,  as  the  relics  of  indecency  on 
the  walls  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  report 
with  unseemly  accuracy.  The  majority  of 
poets  and  wits,  and  every  theatre  of  the  day 
fed  with  their  unspeakable  obscenities  an  ap- 
petite for  baseness  which  demanded  the  lowest 
and  grossest  forms  of  excitement.  Even  the 
virtuous  and  refined  Pliny  indulged  in  sala- 
cious epigrams.  Martial  and  Statins,  who  are 
among  the  most  brilliant  representatives  of  the 
Flavian  era,  disfigured  their  writings  with  vile 
allusions.  Nearly  all  plays  were  spiced  with 
profanity  and  indelicacies,  while  sallies  against 
the  first  principles  of  morality  and  jests  at  the 
expense  of  the  gods  made  the  theatres  ring 
with  coarse  laughter.  Baseness  was  in  the 
very  air  poisoning  and  corrupting  each  new 
generation  of  youth. 

This  was  a  sad  fall  from  the  stern  morality 
of  early  Rome.  The  Latins,  in  their  integrity, 
held  fast  the  sentiments  of  chastity  and  mod- 
esty, for  hundreds  of  years  a  divorce  being  un- 
heard of.  The  family  was  maintained  with 
love  and  respect,  marriage  being  held  sacred 
and  motherhood  being  regarded  as  the  noblest 
estate  conceivable.  Even  nude  images  of  the 
gods  were  not  tolerated.     With  Greek  culture 

118 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

came  luxury  and  effeminacy  until,  as  Uhlhorn 
has  said,  ' '  the  ancient  simple  domesticity  dis- 
appeared and  with  it  chastity  and  morality." 
The  voluptuousness  and  groveling  baseness  of 
life  at  Rome  make  a  record  so  dark  and  tragic 
that  one  gladly  turns  down  such  pages  of  his- 
tory, hoping  to  shut  out  the  dismal  fact  that  a 
civilization,  once  so  brilliant,  could  have  fallen 
into  such  hopeless  decay. 

The  reason  for  this  widespread  social  cor- 
ruption is  ultimately  to  be  found  in  the  absence 
of  any  power  that  could  make  for  righteousness. 
Men  were  left  to  fight  evil  without  weapons,  to 
maintain  virtue  without  the  inspiration  of 
noble  examples,  or  the  encouragement  of  divine 
grace.  The  finer  ideals  and  types  of  character 
were  unknown.  It  has  been  said  by  a  modern 
student  of  the  times  that  Cato  the  elder  pos- 
sessed almost  every  virtue  not  specially  com- 
mended of  Christ,  but  that  there  was  not  one 
of  the  beatitudes  in  which  he,  the  best  of  the 
Romans,  could  have  claimed  a  part  ;  and  that 
there  was  not  one  of  the  divinities  who  pos- 
sessed any  virtue  at  all.  Epictetus  boasted 
that  one  who  is  wise  ' '  fears  neither  man  nor 
God,"  and  Seneca  follows  in  the  same  strain, 
saying  that  "From  man  not  much  is  to  be 
feared  ;  from  God,  nothing."  The  spirit  of 
reverence  did  not  belong  to  men  who  possessed 

119 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

neither  a  profound  respect  for  virtue,  nor  an 
exalted  sense  of  deity. 

Christianity  found  only  the  ineradicable 
moral  nature  upon  which  to  build  a  structure 
of  personal  character  and  social  righteousness. 
This  was  apparently  a  slender  base  for  the 
lordly  edifice  which  belonged  to  the  new  scheme 
of  life,  but  it  was  sufficient.  Insincerity,  as 
well  as  baseness,  were  rife;  but  the  fact  that 
men  sometimes  spoke  in  behalf  of  virtue,  and 
that  men  encouraged  such  utterances,  be- 
tokened a  moral  sense  which  at  the  worst  was 
only  dormant.  It  may  be  true  of  Seneca,  as 
Macaulay  wrote,  that,  '*  the  business  of  a 
philosopher  was  to  declaim  in  praise  of  poverty 
with  two  million  sterling  at  usury,  to  meditate 
epigramatic  conceits  about  the  evils  of  luxury 
in  gardens  which  moved  the  envy  of  sovereigns, 
to  rant  about  liberty  while  fawning  on  the  in- 
solent and  pampered  freedman  of  a  tyrant,  to 
celebrate  the  divine  beauty  of  virtue  with  a 
pen  which  had  just  before  written  a  defence  of 
the  murder  of  a  mother  by  her  son."  Never- 
theless, the  fine  sentiments  testified  to  the  ex- 
istence of  a  moral  ideal  and  the  possibility  of 
real  excellence  of  character,  as  was  abundantly 
exhibited  in  such  men  as  the  slave-philosopher 
Epictetus,  and  the  imperial  philosopher  Marcus 
Aurelius  ;  in  the  incorruptible  Fabricius,   the 

120 


The  Moral  Standards  of  the  Period 

high-minded  Regulus,  the  industrious  and 
frugal  Cincinnatus ;  in  Virgil,  also  a  poet  of  deli- 
cate fancies ;  and  in  Cicero,  an  eloquent  pleader 
for  public  virtue.  There  remained  enough 
of  moral  understanding  to  make  the  task  of  an 
Apostle  not  altogether  hopeless.  The  world 
not  only  needed  a  gospel  of  righteousness  and 
assurances  of  divine  grace,  but  it  was  prepared 
for  a  message  of  light  given  with  the  urgency 
of  an  ambassador  of  Christ.  Therefore,  Paul 
could  write  to  one  Roman  colony:  "Let  your 
conversation  be  always  with  grace,  seasoned 
with  salt,"  that  is,  with  the  salt  of  refinement 
and  delicacy,  and  to  another  colony,  < '  What- 
soever things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are 
honorable,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  what- 
soever things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are 
lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report; 
if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise,  take  account  of  these  things. ' ' 


121 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Intellectual  Tendencies  of 
THE  Time. 

AGAINST  the  dark  background  of  social 
corruption  and  the  frightful  debasement 
of  the  enslaved  and  beggared  masses  gleams 
the  light  of  intelligence.  The  mind  had  found 
quickening  and  expansion.  By  the  intellectual 
development  of  the  age  of  Pericles  and 
Augustus  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  the 
story  and  even  for  the  philosophy  of  Christ- 
ianity. The  Word  was  not  proclaimed  to  dull 
and  groveling  savages,  wanting  in  language 
and  mental  capacity,  but  had  free  course  to 
run  and  be  glorified  in  the  most  perfect  speech 
of  history.  The  significance  of  this  fact  has 
been  demonstrated  in  our  own  century  by  the 
slowness  of  mission  work  among  barbarous 
people.  It  required  thirty  years  of  devout 
labor  to  produce  the  first  convert  among  the 
savage  tribes  of  West  Africa;  but  now,  in  the 
developed  science  of  the  third  generation  of 
missionaries,  the  school  and  the  college  keep 
pace  with  the  advancing  tide  of  evangelistic 

122 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

work.  Ignorance  is  not  the  mother  of  that 
kind  of  devotion  upon  which  Christianity  is 
built.  The  appeal  of  Christianity  is  to  reason, 
through  the  medium  of  human  speech,  and  its 
doctrines  require  the  finest  and  noblest  modes 
of  expression.  No  literature  is  loftier,  no 
lines  of  reasoning  more  subtle  than  those  given 
to  the  world  from  the  exalted  mind  of  Saint 
Paul. 

The  perfection  of  the  Greek  language,  which 
he  employed  in  his  letters  to  the  churches, 
and  in  which  he  preached  as  his  native  tongue, 
has  been  conceded  by  scholars  of  all  lands  and 
ages.  It  was  naturally,  and  yet  providen- 
tially, developed  by  a  people  who  for  pure  in- 
tellectuality have  never  been  surpassed.  It  is 
at  once  the  richest  and  most  exact,  the  most 
flexible  and  the  most  delicate  the  world  has 
yet  known.  Its  vocabulary  is  extensive  while 
its  grammatical  structure  admits  of  the  most 
varied  and  refined  methods  of  expression. 
Like  the  art  and  architecture  of  Greece  it  was 
not  only  a  part  of  the  evolution  of  a  unique 
people,  but  it  served  to  perpetuate  and  trans- 
mit the  intellectuality  out  of  which  it  had 
been  developed.  The  language  contained 
much  more  than  can  be  attributed  to  the  in- 
dependent out-working  of  Grecian  genius. 
No   people   has   ever   been   entirely  isolated. 

123 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

There  has  never  been  a  hermit  nation.  At 
least  no  race  has  lifted  itself  out  of  savagery- 
save  as  it  absorbed  ideas  and  inherited  institu- 
tions from  other  sources  of  civilization.  Even 
the  Hittites,  shut  away  from  contemporary- 
kingdoms  beyond  the  Taurus  and  Phrygian 
ranges,  came  down  to  Hamal  and  touched  the 
headwaters  of  the  Euphrates  at  Carchemish, 
thus  acquiring  knowledge  from  the  Egyptians 
and  the  Assyrians,  which,  in  turn,  they  contrib- 
uted to  people  with  whom  they  established  com- 
mercial relations  across  the  Hellespont.  The 
continuity  of  history  has  never  been  more 
clearly  exhibited  than  in  the  structure  of  civ- 
ilization which  made  the  Augustan  age  memor- 
able. 

The  Janguage  and  art  of  Greece  was  Rome's 
by  right  of  inheritance,  a  right  fortified  by  in- 
dependent and  vigorous  effort  to  improve 
what  had  been  discovered  and  absorbed.  The 
civilization  of  Rome  was  still  more  complex 
and  derivative  because  the  Empire  had  swept 
its  boundaries  around  all  the  lands  which  had 
been  directly  and  indirectly  influenced  by 
Greek  culture,  assimilating  whatever  was 
fitted  to  advance  society  and  enrich  the  state. 
The  elements  which  entered  into  the  composite 
order  of  the  first  century  were  exceedingly 
ancient.      Not  all  of  them  can  be  traced   to 

124 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

their  origin,  as  not  every  great  river  can  be 
followed  to  its  source  among  the  wooded  hills. 
The  streams  of  influence  which  flowed  to- 
gether at  last  in  the  common  life  of  the  great 
empire  took  their  rise  among  the  Babylonians, 
Egyptians  and  Phoenicians.  From  one  source 
came  the  love  of  magnificence,  from  another 
the  sense  of  grandeur,  from  another  sugges- 
tions as  wide  apart  as  commerce  and  litera- 
ture. The  process  began  in  prehistoric  times, 
but  its  beginnings  are  forever  lost;  the  accum- 
ulative effects,  however,  lingered  to  Paul's 
day,  and  vitally  affected  the  fortunes  of 
Christianity.  The  Romans  had  varied  culture 
because  they  learned  from  the  Greeks,  while 
the  Greeks  had  become  the  masters  of  the 
world  in  literature,  art  and  philosophy,  be- 
cause they  had  gathered  treasures  of  thought 
and  experience  from  so  many  lands. 

It  was  not  only  a  time  of  vast  accumula- 
tions, but  also  of  intellectual  activity.  It  is 
true  that  the  greatest  thinkers  had  long  passed 
away.  The  unsurpassed  triad  of  original  and 
progressive  philosophers,  Socrates,  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  coming  in  succession  as  master  and 
pupil,  had  lived  their  fruitful  lives  and  gone  to 
the  shades.  Homer,  the  first  and  greatest  of 
epic  writers;  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euri- 
pides,  masters  of  Greek  tragedy,  and  Herod- 

126 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

otus,  the  father  of  all  historians,  had  long 
before  completed  their  tasks;  but  Latin 
writers  of  the  first  century  found  their  inspir- 
ation in  the  G-reek  classics.  Athens,  in  the 
time  of  the  Empire,  bore  the  character  of  a 
university  town  to  which  every  Roman  of  lit- 
erary pretensions  made  a  pilgrimage.  Cicero 
delighted  in  its  atmosphere  of  culture.  Ha- 
drian was  proud  to  have  embellished  it  with 
imperial  magnificence.  This  was  an  age  of 
travel,  brigandage  and  piracy  having  been 
suppressed  by  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  Em- 
pire. Men  who  boasted  the  rights  of  Roman 
citizenship  went  everywhere  in  safety.  All 
who  had  leisure  and  money  betook  themselves 
to  classic  and  historic  scenes,  quickening  and 
broadening  their  minds  by  the  easy  and  swift 
adoption  of  whatever  they  discovered  in  the 
kindred  civilization  of  the  people  whom  Rome 
had  conquered  in  the  contest  of  arms,  but  to 
whom  she  yielded  the  palm  of  victory  in  the 
contest  of  ideas.  Latins  and  Greeks  were  of 
the  same  Aryan  stock,  and  although  each 
branch  of  the  common  race  had  developed  un- 
der different  environments,  yet  the  likeness 
was  deeper  than  the  divergence.  Therefore 
the  moment  they  came  into  contact  assimila- 
tion was  measurably  complete.  Out  of  this 
communication  of  ideas  came  a  new  and  worthy 

126 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

literature.  To  this  century  belonged  such 
poets  as  Horace,  Virgil  and  Ovid,  such  satir- 
ists as  Juvenal  and  Lucian,  such  historians  as 
Sallust,  Tacitus  and  Plutarch,  such  philoso- 
phers as  Seneca  and  Epictetus.  It  was  the 
golden  age  of  the  Latins,  and  even  emperors 
became  patrons  of  letters  and  the  arts. 

Greco-Roman  civilization  was  no  longer  con- 
fined to  the  two  historic  peninsulas.  It  had 
followed  the  conquests  of  the  phalanx  and  the 
legion  until  it  had  touched  all  centers  of  life 
in  the  known  world.  Cicero,  who  was  gov- 
ernor of  Cilicia  fifty  years  before  the  time  of 
Paul,  speaks  of  the  thorough  acquaintance 
with  Greek  among  all  literary  classes.  About 
the  close  of  the  Apostle's  career,  Agricola,  who 
was  to  become  conqueror  of  Britain,  was  re- 
ceiving a  Greek  education  in  the  city  of  Mar- 
seilles. In  Pamphylia  and  Galatia  there  were 
many  cities  which  had  been  so  far  Hellenized 
that  the  gospel  could  be  proclaimed  in  them 
through  the  language  which  had  become  the 
vehicle  of  revelation. 

The  introduction  of  social  and  educational 
influences  was  Rome's  most  effective  way  of 
subduing  rustic  barbarism  and  overcoming 
oriental  stagnation.  This  policy  originated 
with  the  great  Macedonian  whose  ambition 
had  first  carried  the  language  of  Greece  into 

127 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

the  Orient,  and  of  the  Greek  kings  of  Syria 
who,  in  the  breaking  up  of  the  Alexandrian  em- 
pire, served  in  turn  to  spread  and  deepen  the 
new  civilization.  The  special  work  of  the  first 
century  was  the  furtherance  of  an  undertaking 
which  had  been  shared  in  by  many  generations; 
and  which  at  first  had  moved  from  Macedonia 
eastward,  and  which  afterward  moved  from 
Italy  in  other  directions.  In  many  cities  far 
from  Rome  were  not  only  examples  and  repro- 
ductions of  Grecian  art,  but  schools  and  libra- 
ries open  to  the  public.  Pliny  was  delighted  to 
learn  that  copies  of  his  works  were  sold  in 
Lyons,  while  along  the  banks  of  the  Danube 
and  Rhine  were  manufactories  of  earthenware 
of  the  Hellenic  type.  Everywhere  men  were 
being  educated  in  ancient  and  current  litera- 
ture; in  art  and  philosophy,  in  history  and 
social  science,  in  agriculture  and  war. 

This  widespread  intelligence  not  only 
opened  the  way  for  an  apprehension  of  the 
Gospel  but  it  in  turn  reacted  upon  Christianity 
itself,  which  was  seeking  to  enlighten  the  world. 
No  new  disclosures  were  made  and  no  revision 
of  the  apostolic  message  was  attempted,  but 
independence  in  interpreting  and  applying  it 
was  inevitable;  with  a  certain  molding  and 
remolding  of  the  institutions  of  Christianity. 
The  processes  of  religious  development   have 

128 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

always  followed  their  own  law.  Christianity 
has,  therefore,  been  compelled  to  adjust  itself, 
for  the  time  being  to  established  ways  of  think- 
ing. This  was  specially  true  in  the  first  cen- 
tury when  its  doctrines  were  acted  upon  by 
currents  of  thought  and  feeling  older  than 
itself  and  almost  as  persistent,  and  when  its 
noblest  precepts  were  being  insensibly  modi- 
fied by  public  sentiment.  The  unfolding  of  a 
seed  depends  in  part  upon  the  peculiar  quality 
of  the  soil  into  which  it  happens  to  fall.  The 
seed  of  the  Word  has  had  variant  fortunes  in 
the  different  soils  in  which  it  has  been  planted. 
The  hereditary  tendencies  of  the  Roman  world 
exerted  such  an  influence  upon  the  life  and 
the  mold  of  Christianity  that  after  nineteen 
centuries  they  still  shape  and  control  it. 

After  a  time  men  learned  to  philosophize 
about  religion  and  to  add  the  sanction  of  rea- 
son to  that  of  revelation  and  command;  but 
there  was  nothing  of  this  in  the  ancient  re- 
ligions, for  not  one  of  them  addressed  itself  in 
a  formal  and  undisguised  way  to  reason.  The 
Grecian  and  Roman  mythologies  were  childish 
and  their  sacred  rites  superstitious,  while  the 
Hebrew  prophets  rested  upon  the  authority  of 
a  divine  mandate.  It  did  not  belong  to  the 
Semitic  habit  of  mind  to  rationalize.  A  cer- 
tain  limitation  was  put  upon  the  Founder  of 

129 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

Christianity,  who  could  deal  with  men  only  as 
He  found  them.  The  language  of  Greece  would 
not  have  been  altogether  strange  to  many  of 
His  hearers,  but  the  language  of  philosophy 
would  have  been  puzzling,  and  distracting.  The 
men  of  Judea  had  not  learned  to  love  knowl- 
edge for  its  own  sake,  nor  had  they  become 
adepts  in  following  processes  by  which  truth 
is  established  in  the  mind.  They  were  not 
much  concerned  about  the  principle  of  things. 
They  had  never  been  taught  to  assign  rational 
cases  for  ^natural  phenomena,  or  rational 
grounds  for  moral  precepts.  They  were  in- 
terested in  neither  the  process  nor  the  pro- 
duct of  ratiocination.  They  simply  listened 
favorably  to  that  which  bore  the  marks  of 
authority  or  which  commended  itself  immedi- 
ately to  their  minds. 

There  is  profound  philosophy  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  but  there  is  no  formal  philos- 
ophizing in  any  of  the  New  Testament  deliv- 
erances. It  was  left  for  another  people  to 
bring  in  this  habit  of  mind  aad  to  arrive  by 
another  pathway  at  the  conclusions  which  had 
been  authoritatively  announced  by  Christ  and 
His  apostles.  No  road  has  been  discovered 
leading  to  sublimer  heights  than  those  on 
which  the  Master  always  dwelt,  but  another 
approach   has   been   discovered   by   which    to 

130 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

measure  their  loftiness  and  to  appreciate 
the  outlook  from  their  summit.  The 
services  of  the  synagogue,  the  schools  of  the 
rabbis,  even  the  teachings  of  the  apostles,  had 
failed  to  develop  certain  intellectual  faculties 
which  the  finer  and  broader  culture  of  Greece 
brought  into  play.  With  this  disciplined 
thought  men  could  go  to  the  foundation  of 
ethical  systems,,  could  discover  the  right  and 
the  significance  of  man's  relations  to  nature 
and  G-od,  and  then  set  forth  more  clearly  and 
persuasively  the  ideal  ends  and  aims  of  human 
life. 

Under  the  stimulus  and  instruction  of  Greek 
philosophers,  men  who  had  received  the  word  of 
revelation  learned  to  apply  reason  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  soul.  Thus  they  deepened  their 
sense  of  spiritual  realities  and  intensified 
their  longings  for  the  heavenly  life.  The  au- 
thoritative utterance  of  revelation  sufficed  for 
a  people  not  given  to  speculation  and  reflec- 
tion, but  there  was  unmeasured  gain  in  the 
freedom  from  the  dogmatism  concerning  him- 
self. The  soul  asserts  itself  to  unspeakable 
advantage  in  conscience  and  consciousness. 
The  authenticity  of  a  document  may  be  ques- 
tioned. The  prerogative  of  command  may  be 
denied,  but  the  independent,  autocratic  dic- 
tum of  the  mind  concerning  its  own  modes  and 

131 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

laws  of  existence  cannot  be  rejected.  It  was, 
therefore,  no  small  contribution  of  Greek 
thought  that  established  two  moral  existences 
in  the  universe,  God  the  Creator,  and  man 
created  in  his  moral  likeness. 

It  is  not  to  be  conceded  that  the  rational 
process  was  complete  apart  from  the  author- 
ity and  guidance  of  revelation.  The  loftiest 
of  philosophers  fell  short  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment standard  of  thought  regarding  the  capa- 
city and  destiny  of  man,  but  they  traced  the 
way  to  absolute  convictions  concerning  the 
immaterial  nature  of  the  soul  in  contrast  with 
the  crass  and  perishable  nature  of  the  body. 
Socrates  was  the  pioneer  in  this  splendid  field 
of  research.  He  was  fascinated  by  the  mys- 
teries and  grandeurs  revealed  within.  His 
favorite  injunction  to  his  pupils  was,  "Know 
thyself,"  an  injunction  which  he  was  the  first 
to  obey.  The  fact  of  the  soul  and  its  possible 
moral  improvement  were  the  objects  of  his  un- 
failing interest  and  speculation.  To  him  all 
material  considerations  were  unpractical.  Man 
and  whatever  relates  to  man  furnished  the 
only  matters  worthy  of  deep  study.  Plato 
had  the  immense  advantage  of  such  a  forerun- 
ner, and  also  of  the  possession  of  a  more 
thoroughly  disciplined  mind,  and  consequently 
he  came   to   a   profounder   knowledge  of   the 

132 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

soul.  He  made  much  of  the  principle  of  in- 
telligence, by  virtue  of  which  man  has  kin- 
ship with  God,  and  hence  is  superior  to  all 
other  forms  of  creation. 

Connected  with  this  demonstration  of  the 
soul  was  the  closely  allied  one  which  resulted 
in  convictions  concerning  God.  Which  of 
these  two  antedated  the  other  and  which  was 
of  greater  value  cannot  be  easily  determined. 
Contributions  were  made  by  successive  gener- 
ations of  '<  seekers  after  God  "  until  at  last  the 
idea  of  God  was  confidently  grasped.  Out  of 
the  varied  forms  and  modes  of  being  these 
truth  seekers  unraveled  the  enigma  presented 
in  the  apparent  contradictions  of  nature  by 
the  clearly  asserted  principle  of  unity  of  pur- 
pose. They  brought  ' '  the  phenomena  of 
earth  and  sea  and  sky  under  a  single  ex- 
pression." By  the  "unconscious  alchemy  of 
thought  "  the  separate  groups  of  phenomena 
were  combined  into  a  whole  and  conceived  of 
as  forming  a  "universe."  The  search  was 
continued  until  the  force  which  pervades  the 
universe  was  reached.  There  can  be  but  one 
God,  and  to  Him,  by  further  elaboration 
of  thought,  they  were  compelled  to  at- 
tribute mind  and  personality,  together 
with  the  prerogatives  of  moral  govern- 
ment.    In  ordering  the  vast  whole  of  nature 

133 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

according  to  immutable  law  He  must  be  su- 
preme. 

Having  no  resources  of  knowledge  save  un 
aided  reason,  their  doctrine  of  Deity  was  neither 
complete  nor  free  from  error.  Socrates  did 
not  deny  the  existence  and  activity  of  gods, 
many,  while  maintaining  that  there  is  one  Su- 
preme Being  to  whom  reverence  must  ever  be 
paid.  His  arguments,  like  those  of  the  Chris- 
tian Paley,  move  irresistibly  toward  a  De- 
signer of  the  universe.  Both  reasoned  from 
the  amazing  structure  of  the  body  whose  va- 
rious parts  play  into  each  other  for  a  common 
end ;  both  dwelling  with  special  delight  on  the 
marvelous  organ  of  vision.  To  indications  of 
purpose  drawn  from  various  adaptations  in  na- 
ture, such  as  birds  to  the  air  and  fish  to  the 
sea,  he  added  others  which  apply  to  the  life 
within.  He  was  wont  to  ask:  "Are  you  not 
conscious  of  reason  and  intelligence?  And  yet 
do  you  doubt  intelligence  elsewhere  in  the 
great  universe!  You  believe  in  the  unseen 
soul,  and  do  you  yet  refuse  to  believe  in  the 
unseen  God?  " 

Here  again,  the  profounder  mind  of  Plato, 
building  upon  the  originality  and  moral  ear- 
nestness of  his  master,  advanced  to  yet  higher 
ideas  of  God  as  the  ' '  Father  and  Maker  of  the 
universe."     To  him  the   doctrine   of   atheism 

134 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

was  such  an  absurdity  that  he  considered  it 
possible  only  to  "  lost  and  perverted  natures," 
and  hence  be  justified  the  moral  indignation  of 
those  who  had  come  to  a  normal  belief  in 
Deity.  Like  Socrates  he  fell  into  the  obsti- 
nate error  of  the  time  and  marred  his  theism 
with  the  inconsistent  notion  of  subordinate 
gods  who  create  in  obedience  to  the  mandate 
of  the  great  Designer ;  but  he  advanced,  never- 
theless, to  ideas  of  God's  providental  care  over 
men,  which  wrought  good  results  even  out  of 
poverty,  sickness,  and  misfortune. 

Such  notions  of  God  lacked  authority  and 
fullness  but  they  prepared  men's  minds  for  the 
revelations  of  the  Gospel,  and  so  leavened  the 
thought  of  the  world  as  to  make  a  rational 
theism  and  a  living  faith  more  easily  attained 
and  more  firmly  held: 

As  Greek  philosophy  applied  reason  to  God 
and  the  soul,  so  also  did  it  elucidate  the 
grounds  of  ethical  obligation.  It  raised  morals 
to  the  rank  of  a  science;  but  not  in  the  sense 
that  it  made  duty  more  sublime  or  that  it 
added  aught  to  the  treasures  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.  The  system  of  ethics  intro- 
duced by  the  teaching  and  enforced  by  the 
example  of  Christ  was  not  susceptible  of  im- 
provement. But  there  was  an  advantage  in 
looking  at  the  same  truth  from  a  new  view- 

135 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

point,  and  in  approaching  it  with  a  new  men- 
tal furnishing. 

For  the  first  time,  in  any  land,  men  were 
given  to  moralizing,  to  reasoning  out  the 
grounds  of  right,  and  defining  the  relations  of 
man  to  nature  and  God.  To  this  had  been 
applied  the  deepest  thinking  of  the  Hellenic 
world,  for  "philosophy  was  absorbed  by 
ethics. "  Plato  was  profoundly  concerned  with 
this  aspect  of  the  truth  that  man  bears  the 
image  of  divine  intelligence.  He  declared  that 
each  one  has  two  patterns  before  him,  the  one 
blessed  and  divine,  the  other  godless  and 
wretched.  From  the  manifested  character  of 
God  he  reasoned  as  to  the  nature  and  scope  of 
virtue.  ' '  God  is  altogether  righteous,  to  be- 
come like  him  is  to  become  holy,  just,  and 
wise."  He  lacked,  however,  the  appreciation 
of  love,  and  missed  the  virtue  of  pity ;  and  not 
knowing  the  doctrine  of  grace  he  limited  his 
promises  of  refinement  to  philosophers;  easily 
excluding,  as  did  his  great  pupil,  Aristotle,  the 
unfortunate  masses;  and  yet  he  pressed  on 
toward  the  goal  of  righteousness. 

Moral  questions  gave  impulse  also  to  the 
Stoic  system  of  philosophy,  which  from  the 
first  took  a  practical  turn,  seeking  to  discover 
the  actual  laws  of  life  and  to  bring  men  into 
harmony    with    their    environment.       In    its 

136 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

earlier  stages  it  blundered,  keeping  too  close 
to  materialism,  yet  maintaining  a  certain 
directness  of  aim  which  interested  and  moved 
men.  The  veriest  child  of  gospel  training 
could  have  helped  such  philosophers  out  of 
many  of  their  difficulties;  and  yet  they  were 
grandly  striving  to  discover  the  secret  of 
virtue  and  the  inner  principle  of  light.  At 
their  highest  point  they  fell  far  short  of  per- 
fection and  altogether  missed  the  fact  of  God's 
graciousness,  yet  they  established  lines  of  in- 
vestigation which  could  be  afterward  followed 
under  the  light  of  Christianity. 

To  both  Jew  and  Christian  the  idea  of  right 
was  identified  with  holy  laws.  To  the  Greek 
mind  "divine  commands"  were  not  an  arbi- 
trary expression  of  a  personal  will,  but  rather 
of  nature,  of  laws  which  belonged  to  the  very 
constitution  of  the  universe.  It  was  the  part 
of  man  to  employ  the  powers  and  faculties 
with  which  he  had  been  endowed  for  the  ap- 
prehension of  these  laws  and  for  the  proper 
adjustment  to  them  of  all  his  activities.  As 
he  constructed  a  rational  idea  of  the  Creator 
and  Moral  Governor  of  the  world,  so  he  was 
bound  to  discover  the  ethical  relationship  of 
man.  It  was  evident  that  the  universe  was 
fashioned  for  wise  and  beneficent  ends,  for  the 
production  of  beauty  and  happiness.     What, 

137 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  countless  miseries 
of  mankind?  How  can  these  things  be  fitted 
to  an  ever  deepening  belief  in  divine  good- 
ness? Men  must  be  the  authors  of  their  own 
misery.  They  must  have  wilfully  failed  to 
seek  conformity  with  the  harmonious  laws  of 
nature.  The  responsibility  for  the  jarring 
discord  is  with  intelligent  and  free  beings. 

This  idea  was  not  born  in  maturity.  It  is 
too  fundamental  and  far-reaching  to  have  come 
at  once  to  perfection  and  dominance.  Two 
facts  were  first  established,  and  then  the  rela- 
tion between  them  was  formulated.  These 
two  facts  are  that  man  thinks  and  acts.  But 
action  must  depend  upon  the  "assent  of  the 
mind;"  for  mere  impulse  toward  an  object 
does  not  justify  possession.  There  must,  there- 
fore, be  an  exercise  of  judgment  on  the  basis 
of  the  laws  of  nature,  then  the  will  comes  into 
play,  and  ought  always  to  accord  with  the 
highest  good  of  the  whole  being.  The  modern 
philosopher  expresses  no  more  than  this  when 
he  declares  that  man  has  self-determining 
power  and  that  he  is  under  everlasting  obliga- 
tion to  bring  himself  into  harmony  with  his 
proper  environment. 

This  idea  of  fixedness  in  nature  and  freedom 
in  man  found  forcible  utterance  in  the  writings 
of  Epictetus.     "Of  all   things   that  are,  one 

138 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

part  is  in  our  control  and  the  other  out  of  it. 
Out  of  our  control  are  our  bodies,  property, 
reputation  and  office;  in  our  control  are  opin- 
ion, impulse  to  do,  effort  to  obtain  and  to  avoid ; 
in  a  word,  our  own  proper  activities."  He 
maintained,  with  his  fellow-Stoics,  that  it  not 
only  belongs  to  man  to  educate  his  mind  and 
train  his  will,  but  that  it  is  the  pro- 
vince of  nature  to  advance  the  process 
of  discipline.  In  this  way  the  Stoics 
justified  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  G-od 
and  encouraged  man  to  the  highest 
exercise  of  virtue.  The  Christian  philoso- 
phers of  Alexandria  took  up  this  sugges- 
tion with  delight,  and  enriched  it  with  precepts 
from  the  Gospels,  until  they  had  evolved  an 
elaborate  doctrine  of  God  as  "the  Teacher, 
Trainer,  and  Physician  of  men. "  The  heathen 
philosophers  led  the  way  to  the  inspiring 
thought  that  man  needs  only  to  gain  the  prize 
which  has  been  put  within  his  reach.  Thus  he 
acquires  finest  qualities  of  soul,  putting  pas- 
sion under  control  of  reason,  and  living  in  ac- 
cord with  the  beneficent  will  of  God.  The 
path  which  these  thinkers  followed  brought 
them  to  sincerity,  which  lies,  indeed,  near  the 
foundations  of  Christian  character.  They  did 
not  touch  such  of  the  Beatitudes  as  "Blessed 
are   the  poor   in   spirit;"   "Blessed   are   the 

139 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

meeK;"  "Blessed  are  the  merciful ;  "  "Blessed 
are  those  who  hunger  for  righteousness;"  but 
they  caught  glimpses  of  that  principle  ol 
goodness  which  had  been  overlooked  by  the 
formalists  of  the  temple.  They  discovered 
the  ethical  quality  of  secret  thoughts  and 
cherished  impulses. 

Epictetus  held  that  the  philosopher's  lecture 
room  should  be  a  surgery,  where  men  should 
not  be  entertained  by  fair  words,  but  where 
they  should  be  aided  in  the  dissection  of  their 
own  characters,  in  the  detection  of  secret  faults 
which  could  be  banished  from  the  soul.  He 
followed  out  a  principle  which  had  been 
recognized  from  the  first  by  the  Stoics,  who 
laid  emphasis  upon  the  inwardness  of  man's 
real  life,  and  he  unfailingly  insisted  that  motive 
counts  for  more  than  performance.  In  the 
time  of  greatest  glory  for  this  system  of  phi- 
losophy, Epictetus,  Seneca  and  Aurelius  urged 
strict  examination  of  one's  own  character,  even 
to  minute  inspection  of  words  and  deeds  which 
marked  each  day  of  life. 

The  chief  advantage  of  such  habits  of  ob- 
servation and  reflection  was  not  that  Grecian 
standards  approached  those  of  Christianity,  for 
all  the  philosophy  of  the  first  century  was  im- 
potent against  the  social  corruption  of  the  age, 
but  that  the  new  religion  found  many  minds 

140 


Intellectual  Tendencies  of  the  Time 

prepared  for  its  sweet  and  holy  revelations, 
and  that  it  secured  a  worthy  handmaid  in  the 
reason  which  had  already  been  trained  to  noble 
uses.  The  G-reeks,  as  well  as  the  Hebrews, 
proved  themselves  "a  people  of  God's  own 
possession,"  set  apart  to  the  highest  service 
of  God  and  man.  In  a  qualified  way,  the 
Stoic,  as  well  as  the  prophet,  was  a  forerunner 
of  the  Christ;  nay,  like  the  Apostle  also,  he 
came  after  the  gospel  to  expound  and  apply 
its  revelations  and  injunctions.  While  not 
many  "wise,"  while  not  many  who  are  exalted 
in  the  conceit  of  their  own  knowledge  are 
called,  yet  the  appeal  of  Christianity  is  always 
to  an  understanding  mind,  in  behalf  of  an 
intelligent  faith. 

We  gratefully  recognize,  therefore,  the 
glorious  mission  of  these  two  kindred  peoples, 
the  Greeks  and  the  Latins,  to  quicken  the 
human  intellect,  to  cultivate  the  imagination, 
to  refine  the  taste,  and  even  to  discover  the 
rational  grounds  of  faith  and  character.  As 
the  Renaissance  ushered  in  a  new  day  for  vital 
religion,  so  in  the  first  century  the  splendid 
(development  of  the  human  faculties  made  pos- 
sible the  phenomenally  rapid  spread  of  Christ- 
ianity throughout  the  vast  empire  of  Rome. 
Beyond  the  bounds  of  civilization  it  did  not 
attempt   to   go,     Elsewhere   in    the  barbaric 

141 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

world,  the  seed  would  have  fallen  on  unpro- 
ductive ground.  Under  the  aegis  of  Rome  the 
greatest  herald  of  the  cross  found  protection, 
and  by  a  light  which  shined  out  of  Athens  he 
led  men  to  the  truth  which  had  first  been  pro- 
claimed in  Jerusalem. 


142 


chapter  viii. 

The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Vic- 
tory. 

'X'HERE  have  been  many  crises  in  the  world's 
^  history,  but  it  is  hardly  correct  to  say 
that  in  all  of  them  an  issue  of  supreme  moment 
was  involved.  At  the  battle  of  Marathon  the 
Persian  host  was  turned  back  from  ruthlessly 
despoiling  Achaia  and  destroying  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Greece.  Now  it  would  doubtless  have 
been  an  incalculable  loss  to  the  world  to  have 
had  the  progressive  life  of  Athens  checked  or 
perhaps  even  extinguished  by  Oriental  des- 
potism— art,  philosophy,  civil  government 
having  been  wrought  into  forms  of  perfection 
by  the  genius  of  the  most  enterprising  and 
original  people  of  ancient  times;  yet  it  would 
be  an  hyperbole  to  say  that  the  hope  of  man- 
kind was  staked  upon  the  result  of  an  attack 
made  by  the  Grecian  phalanx  which  on  the 
third  day  of  the  Persian  invasion  dared  to  beat 
against  the  dense  mass  of  Xerxes'  army.  The 
world  was  not  saved  by  Grecian  arms,  nor  has 
it  been  saved  by  Grecian  culture. 

143 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

On  the  banks  of  the  Metaurus  an  army  under 
the  Consul  Nero  struck  with  fury  the  camp  of 
the  Carthagenians,  and  by  noontime  had  won 
a  victory  of  lasting  renown.  For  seventeen 
years  Hanibal  had  maintained  himself  in  Italy, 
ravaging  it  at  will  from  the  snowy  Alps  to  the 
Straits  of  Messina,  and  only  waited  that  fate- 
ful spring  for  the  arrival  of  the  allied  forces 
which  his  brother  had  led  through  Spain  and 
Southern  Gaul,  to  appear  before  the  gates  of 
Rome.  It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the 
loss  which  would  have  resulted  to  the 
world  from  the  substitution  of  that  hard, 
cruel,  materialistic,  uncommunicative  type 
of  civilization  which  had  been  wrought  in 
North  Africa,  for  the  radically  different  type 
which  was  being  developed  on  the  Sabine  hills ; 
a  civilization  not  only  independent  and  vig- 
orous, but  destined  to  enlarge  itself  by  the  ab- 
sorption of  all  that  was  being  evolved  by  the 
kindred  race  in  the  Grecian  peninsula.  Yet 
it  would  be  extravagant  to  say  that  the  life  of 
the  world  was  at  issue  when  in  the  grey  light 
of  the  morning  Hasdrubal's  army  was  routed 
in  a  desperate  encounter  that  rescued  Rome 
from  threatened  annihilation.  The  victory 
was  important,  but  not  absolutely  vital  to  the 
interests  of  mankind. 

There   have   been   crises  in  the  history  of 

144 


The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Victory 

Christianity  when  much  (but  not  all)  was  at 
stake.  When  Abdurman  crossed  the  Pyrenees 
with  a  countless  horde  of  followers,  fierce  and 
ruthless,  and  after  ravaging  Southern  France 
met  Charles  Martel  near  Poitiers  in  mortal 
combat,  Mohammedanism  threatened  to  sup- 
plant Christianity  in  Central  Europe.  The 
consequences  of  such  a  victory  as  the  Moorish 
chief  counted  on  with  easy  assurance  would 
have  been  direful  in  the  extreme,  but  one 
would  not  be  warranted  in  declaring  it  a  fatal 
blow  to  the  cause  of  Christian  civilization.  It 
might  have  delayed  the  march  of  events,  but 
not  the  final  development  of  freedom,  intelli- 
gence and  pure  religion. 

If  Luther  had  yielded  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
as  a  weaker  man  might  have  done,  under  the 
combined  threats  of  the  hierarchy  and  the 
officials  of  state,  the  Reformation  would  have 
waited  a  century,  and  that  movement  of  the 
world  toward  better  things  which  resulted 
from  the  co-ordinate  advance  of  commerce,  the 
revival  of  learning,  the  discovery  of  printing 
and  the  rejuvenation  of  the  church,  would  have 
lacked  its  most  essential  feature.  No  one  who 
has  in  mind  the  significance  of  the  outcome 
can  read  the  story  of  Luther's  critical  hour 
save  with  bated  breath ;  and  yet  there  is  no 
ground  for  saying  that  the  cause  of  pure  re- 

145 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

ligion  had  come  to  its  ultimate  contest.  Christ- 
ianity might  be  over-run  in  particular  lands,  as 
it  was  by  Islamism  in  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt 
in  the  eighth  century,  or  banished  from  a 
country  where  promising  missions  were  estab- 
lished as  in  China  in  a  later  century,  and  yet 
maintain  such  a  vigorous  a  hold  elsewhere  as 
to  insure  its  continuance  on  the  earth. 

But  the  result  of  the  fight  which  the  Apostle 
Paul  was  making  against  the  allied  forces  of 
the  Empire  was  absolute  and  final.  It  closely 
resembled  the  issue  of  his  Master's  work  in  the 
narrower  field  of  Palestine.  If  the  Messiah  had 
failed  to  develop  in  some  minds  the  truth  of 
His  message,  the  glory  of  His  personality,  the 
spiritual  power  of  His  kingdom,  His  coming 
would  have  been  in  vain.  If  Paul  had  failed, 
in  a  ministry  much  longer  and  more  extended 
than  his  Master's,  to  build  some  enduring 
churches  out  of  Gentile  material,  the  defeat 
would  have  carried  with  it  appalling  conse- 
quences. He  was  fully  accredited  as  an  am- 
bassador of  Christ;  he  had  the  tongue  of  fire 
in  which  to  proclaim  his  divine  message;  as  a 
Hebrew  he  could  enter  the  synagogues ;  and 
as  a  Roman  he  had  the  freedom  of  every  city 
of  the  Empire.  If  he  had  not  been  able  to 
quicken  faith,  arouse  devotion,  inspire  hope, 
against  a  heathen  philosphy,  a  dominant   re- 

146 


The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Victory 

ligion  and  a  tide  of  worldliness,  then  no  man 
could  take  up  the  enterprise  which  had  failed 
in  his  hands.  The  divine  attempt  to  plant 
sj.  citual  righteousness  and  a  holy  faith  would 
have  come  to  abysmal  disaster.  The  utmost 
had  been  done  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  No 
other  experiment  could  hope  for  success.  There 
remained  no  further  sacrifice  for  sin,  no  sweeter 
expression  of  mercy  and  grace,  no  more  pa- 
thetic and  persuasive  appeal  to  a  lost  world. 
Against  the  heaviest  odds  the  Apostle  must 
win.  The  issue  was  absolutely  vital.  Here 
was  the  crisis  which  involves  the  life  of  man- 
kind, the  veritable  redemption  of  the  world. 
"When  the  effort  of  Paul  was  crowned  with 
success  the  victory  was  not  for  himself 
alone  but  mainly  for  the  cause  to  which  he  had 
devoted  his  life.  The  day  was  won  for  Chris- 
tianity. It  had  been  demonstrated  that  it 
could  gain  and  hold  the  ground  against  the  al- 
lied forces  of  the  heathen  world,  against  su- 
perstition, against  a  self-sufficient  philosophy, 
against  evil  customs  and  rampant  passions, 
against  malignant  and  persistent  pi»secution. 
Men  and  women  were  to  be  found  in  every 
province  of  the  Empire  who  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  devotion  set  by  the  Apostle,  suffering 
stripes  and  imprisonment  and  ofttimes  facing, 
death  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel.     Better  still, 

147 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

a  new  type  of  individual  and  social  life  had 
been  produced.     Out  of  the  formalities  of  Juda- 
ism and  the  grossness  of  heathenism  had  been 
gathered   many  people  whom  Paul  could  ad- 
dress  as    "brethren,"    "faithful    followers," 
and  even   "saints  in   the  Lord."     Before  he 
began  his  ministry  at  Rome  he  was  assured 
that   the  Capital   contained   some   who   were 
'  <  beloved  of  God. "     From  Asia  Minor  he  wrote 
elaborate   letters    to    "the   Church   of   God" 
which  had  been  gathered  under  his  prolonged 
ministry  at  Corinth — a  most  worldly  and  self- 
absorbed  city,  containing,  nevertheless,  a  few 
whom  he  personally  knew  to  be  "  sanctified  in 
Christ  Jesus,"  and  to  be  in  loving  fellowship 
with  other  "saints"  scattered   through  "the 
whole  of  Achaia."     Even  in  Ephesus,   where 
the   passion  for  gladiatorial  games  fell  little 
short  of  that  which  demoralized  the  populace 
of  Rome,  and  where  the  temples  were  crowded 
by   the   superstitious    worshipers    of    Diana, 
there  was  a  reliable  company  of  saints  who 
were  "faithful  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  who  were 
so  thoughtful  and  intelligent  that  the  Apostle 
could  send  them  a  treatise  only  once  surpassed 
in  profundity  of  Christian  doctrine.     In  Mace- 
donia there  were  two  churches  of  such  noble 
faith  that  Paul  was  grateful  beyonds  words  for 
every  message  that  reached  him  concerning 

148 


The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Yictory 

their  development  in  the  grace  of  the  Gospel. 
One  was  at  Thessalonica,  from  which  city  he 
had  been  driven  by  an  infuriated  mob  jwbere 
men  ' '  turned  from  their  idols  to  serve  a  living 
and  true  God,"  suffering  "much  affliction "  be- 
cause of  the  *'  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  until  the 
report  of  their  faith  "to  God- ward"  filled  even 
neighboring  provinces.  The  other  church  was 
at  Philippi,  the  city  to  which  he  had  first  come 
after  crossing  the  ^gean  Sea,  and  to  which 
he  sent  the  most  affectionate  and  glowing  of 
all  his  epistles. 

There  was  no  shadow  of  doubt  in  the  mind 
of  the  Apostle  concerning  the  ultimate  success 
of  the  Gospel.  When  his  own  labors  were 
drawing  to  an  end  he  wrote  to  younger  men 
who  had  been  consecrated  to  office  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  church,  warning  them,  in- 
deed, against  heresies  and  worldly  tendencies ; 
yet  speaking  with  unshaken  confidence  of  the 
final  triumph  of  Him,  who  had  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light.  In  fact,  he  looked 
for  a  speedy  development  of  the  divine  plans 
in  the  glorious  coming  of  the  Lord,  building 
his  exultant  expectations,  doubtless,  upon  the 
astounding  achievements  of  truth  and  grace 
which  his  own  eyes  had  witnessed.  No  human 
mind  can  so  explore  the  future  as  to  read  the 
details  of  unwritten  history.     Divine  illumi- 

149 


In  The  Time  of  Paul 

nation  and  wide  experience  gave  the  Apostle 
blessed  assurance  that  the  power  and  wisdom 
of  God,  as  manifested  in  Christ,  were  sufficient 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world,  but  it  was  as 
impossible  as  it  was  unnecessary  for  him  to 
know  how  long  and  complex  is  the  process  of 
evolution  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  century  the  seed  of 
truth  had  been  planted  in  many  lands,  in  fields 
which  were  to  be  swept  by  storms,  and  crossed 
and  re-crossed  by  contending  armies.  The  Em- 
pire was  to  be  over-run  by  barbarians  and  fin- 
ally dismembered.  New  nations  and  new  types 
of  civilization  were  to  arise.  The  old  order  of 
things  was  to  be  overturned.  New  modes  of 
government,  new  systems  of  education,  new 
lines  of  social  structure,  new  and  divisive 
methods  of  thought  and  worship  in  the  church 
were  to  succeed  each  other  through  successive 
centuries.  Through  all  these  changes  the 
Gospel  which  Paul  preached  was  to  maintain 
itself  with  unabated  power  and  unmodified 
grace.  As  in  the  first  century,  it  sustained 
itself  against  ideas,  habits,  customs  and  in- 
stitutions which  had  not  only  to  be  resisted 
but  actually  transformed.  The  "prince  of 
this  world"  does  not  readily  yield  to  the 
powers  of  light.  Selfishness  and  worldliness 
are  entrenched  in  the   perversions   of   human 

150 


The  Inevitable  Conflict  and  Victory 

nature.  Consequently  Christianity  can  not 
lay  down  the  task  assumed  when  its  Founder 
came  to  earth  until  the  last  traces  of  untruth 
and  unkindliness  have  yielded  to  the  persua- 
sions of  heavenly  grace. 

But  the  day  dawned.  The  light  deepened 
in  the  eastern  skies.  Its  radiance  gladdened 
the  eyes  of  men  who  in  the  time  of  Paul  were 
gathering  courage  from  the  earliest  victories 
of  the  Word.  Each  critical  age  has  added  its 
triumphs  to  the  list  of  glories,  and  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  has  had  larger  assurance 
than  its  predecessor  that  the  time  must  come 
when  all  the  kingdoms  which  men  have  claimed 
as  their  own,  shall  belong  to  Him  whose  right 
it  is  to  rule,  and  be  but  provinces  of  the  world- 
wide Empire  of  the  Living  God. 


151 


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